


Knights and Sorceresses

by Moonrose91



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-18 21:22:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3584529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose91/pseuds/Moonrose91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kingsmen follow a certain moral code like the knights of Arthurian legend. Generally, they'll go an alternate route, take a path that doesn't end in death, but they don't shy away from it either. Sometimes further intel makes them realize that there is no alternate route to take except through those between them and their goal.</p><p>They are Knights.</p><p>Sorceresses have a whole different creed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gawain the Fallen Knight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> 1) This chapter has strangulation mention.
> 
> 2) For all reading my unfished fics, I apologize for not updating. This plot bunny turned into a plot gremlin. I just stop arguing. (Also, original novel and other things I am co-authoring with someone and trying to just _breathe_ and I need breaks.)
> 
> 3) If you don't like OCs, this is _really_ not the story for you. There are going to be a lot of OCs. So many OCs. They are going to outnumber the canon characters purely because they need to fill emptied ranks and positions we otherwise didn't see.
> 
> 4) Bernie_N is wonderful
> 
> 5) Right now it is Not Rated and there are no Warnings. These will be added after I have further evaluated the future chapters and figured out where it stands. Approach with extreme caution. Tags, both character and otherwise, will be added as needed.

It is the day after they've saved the world.

Eggsy has barely slept, feeling drained and drawn out and exhausted. He had barely managed to check up on his mum and Daisy, his mum clutching at him, asking about the girl. He lied about how he had met her when she got lost and she was a good friend, Roxy. He didn't know how her family was doing and Merlin had called him, saying he was needed back at the mansion.

So Eggsy had, barely, managed to drag himself out, promising his mum he’d be back as soon as he could. He had gone down to the tailor shop, and down the elevator and into the little train, and now he was back at the estate, walking with Merlin. “You look like you haven’t slept,” Merlin stated.

“I really didn’t. Daisy was upset and Mum kept crying. I was just tryin’ to hold ‘em together,” Eggsy answered tiredly as he stepped into an elevator he had never noticed before.

Merlin followed him in and pushed a button, the doors sliding closed. “I did try to postpone this, but the problem is they lost most of their agents and they have a preference for this position. A preference that you’ve filled,” Merlin answered and Eggsy stared over at Merlin at that.

“Who’s ‘they’ Merlin?” he asked.

“The Kingsmen are spies. Killing someone is a last resort. Normally, Valentine’s mission? We never would have been on that. That was only ever going to end with a dead man. But they were already trying to get their agents out of the line of fire and couldn’t spare them to take it off their hands. Plus, they felt it only right that the Kingsmen get revenge for one of their own,” Merlin answered.

“That didn’t answer the question Merlin,” Eggsy protested.

“In World War II, it was discovered that Kingsmen weren’t enough. We barely had time to train before we were sending them out into the field. It was realized that they were going in with the Kingsmen ideals. Instead of changing those ideals, they made up a subset, probably with the belief they would close it down at the end of the World War II. That is not what happened,” Merlin explained.

“So who are they Merl?” Eggsy snapped.

“The Sorceresses, assassins, mostly, but they have a pair of Kingsmen, essentially. You are one of them,” Merlin answered.

“Well, if you accept. You don’t have to accept. And you won’t even be given an amnesia dart for it if you turn it down,” Merlin added as the elevator came to a stop and opened.

The table was like the one Eggsy had sat at with the Arthur he had murdered, where a woman with white-blonde shoulder length bobbed hair in a black evening dress that fell to the floor was leaning over the shoulder of a woman with in a pale grey suit and shocked white hair in short cut. “So, Isolde has checked in?” she asked.

“Yes, quite. Complained about a knife to the knee the whole time, but other than that she is quite all right,” the woman in the black evening dress commented as she pulled her glasses back on.

“I also have a confirmation from Mordred, but she’s not speaking to me yet,” the woman continued.

“No one else?” the woman in the suit asked.

“Afraid not. Though, considering most were in a place filled with guns, this hardly surprises me. We’ll give it a few weeks, see if I can get Isolde to stop whining about being stabbed through the knee, get Mordred out of Merlin’s arms for a few weeks, and we’ll just…do clean-up,” the woman in the evening dress answered and Eggsy shot Merlin a look, though the man pointedly ignored him.

“Guinevere, Morgana,” he called as the woman in the evening dress took her glasses off to shove them at the suited woman.

“Merlin, good. Mr. Gary Unwin, have a seat please,” the woman in the suit greeted, waving a hand to the chair to her right, even as she put on the glasses that the woman in the evening dress was shoving at her.

“Stop shoving things in my face Morgana, I can see perfectly well,” the woman, Guinevere, snapped as Eggsy hesitantly sat down in the chair she had waved at.

“Then act like it,” Morgana retorted and Guinevere sighed as Merlin gently squeezed Eggsy’s shoulder before withdrawing his hand.

His presence was still there and helped Eggsy feel a bit calmer about this whole thing. Whatever this whole thing _was_.

“Oh, even if Enide survived, she won’t stay in the field after that. Put her out of action,” Guinevere ordered and Morgana pulled back the tablet as Guinevere passed her glasses back to her.

“My apologies, but we think we’re down to a grand total of two field agents. How have the Kingsmen faired Merlin?” Guinevere asked.

“So far, we’ve confirmed two deaths, Galahad and Kay. The rest are still out,” Merlin answered.

“So, one, possibly two?” Morgana questioned.

“Lancelot, and if Eggsy turns you down, Galahad, if he accepts that name,” Merlin answered and Eggsy swallowed a bit.

“Right, well, once we finish cleaning up, we’ll obviously be working together. We may just have to start training from within the ranks. I can’t think of any of those posh twats letting their children go again so soon,” Guinevere responded and Eggsy gave a small snort.

“Oh yes, I feel the same about them, but for us Sorceresses, it is more because we don’t want to pull anyone in after this whole debacle. The world’s reeling and so are the people, though Morgana?” Guinevere questioned.

“A girl in the hospital, giving her name as Jane Doe. I’ll pop by and see if she wants a job, and training,” Morgana promised and Guinevere nodded before she focused on Eggsy fully.

He pulled back slightly and she smiled at him. “Hello Mr. Gary Unwin. I had the pleasure of meeting your father once. He was a good man and I am sorry for your loss,” she stated and Eggsy swallowed a bit, nodding slightly.

“Now, normally I would do the usual waiting period but with the world gone to shit, I don’t have the time. Back in World War II, the gentlemen were getting killed off so someone decided to hire and train women. And it worked. We were very successful, and then the war ended and well…we weren’t going to go gently into the night. We had done something important and damn anyone who tried to take it from us. So…we stayed. With two exceptions, every Sorceress dies and takes up a new identity, and then we send them out to kill whomever needs to be killed,” Guinevere stated and Eggsy kept getting distracted by the way Morgana was raising a hand to her ear.

“I don’t think I could do that,” Eggsy said.

“Good, because we aren’t hiring you to do that,” Guinevere answered just as Morgana huffed slightly.

“Mordred’s decided to talk to me,” she stated as Eggsy frowned at Guinevere.

“Wot?” he asked.

“Gawain is a position usually held by those who refuse to shoot their dog, if we happen to be missing a Gawain at the same time the Kingsmen are missing a Knight,” Guinevere stated and Eggsy stilled.

“We need spies just as much as Kingsmen need assassins. They have one now, his name is Tristan. The irony is never lost on me over that,” Guinevere continued, even as Morgana said, “You sound horrific.”

Guinevere looked over her shoulder at Morgana, who flapped her hand at Guinevere, tablet and all. “Mordred is talking to me, more or less,” Morgana snapped.

“You want me to be a Sorceress?” Eggsy asked.

“Well, Kingsmen are called Kings _men_ , but they still accept women, on occasion. We do the same,” Guinevere stated as Morgana said, “Mordred, you sound like you swallowed glass. Please tell me you didn’t actually swallow glass.”

Eggsy heard Merlin’s sharp inhale. “What do you mean you were just _strangled_?” Morgana demanded.

“Strangled?” Guinevere, Merlin, and Eggsy asked all at once.

“No, knowing that Valentine’s SIM cards are disrupted by _lack of oxygen_ is not something that makes learning you were strangled better, why on _Earth_ did you think that would make up for it?” Morgana demanded while Guinevere rubbed her temples.

“This happens surprisingly often to Mordred,” Guinevere stated.

“Just Mordred,” Merlin muttered darkly and Eggsy turned to look up at him.

“Who’s Mordred?” Eggsy asked.

“Generally, the one we send to clean house, thus the name Mordred. I wonder how she’ll react to knowing you’re the one who killed Arthur. She’s never liked him,” Guinevere stated even as Morgana let out an annoyed sound.

“Bloody hell, stop talking Mordred! You’re making it worse! We should never have sent you on this assignment!” Morgana stated and Guinevere seemed content to ignore her as she cursed at Mordred.

“You’ll be a Kingsman, at heart, but you might not sit at the table,” Guinevere stated, even as Merlin greeted someone who was contacting him.

“We sent you to Kentucky to pick up a body because you were already in the bloody country! We did _not_ send you there to die over one!” Morgana shouted and Eggsy tensed slightly while Guinevere reached out to pat his hand.

“Morgana has always gotten a bit frustrated over Mordred. She’ll feel badly about this, but she watched three agents die from their glasses feed today,” Guinevere offered and Eggsy just nodded numbly.

“What do you mean there was no body?” Morgan demanded.

“No, stop talking. Show me,” Morgana ordered.

Morgana made a sound and walked briskly around to the other side of the table, shoving her tablet at Merlin. “Do something about her, please,” Morgana requested.

Merlin frowned a bit and carefully shifted a bit, apologizing to the agent who had checked in before tapping his tablet. “Mordred,” he greeted and visibly winced.

“Mordred, I hate telling you this, but please stop talking. I can barely hear you and it sounds like you may have trouble breathing,” Merlin stated, while Guinevere carefully drew Eggsy back to the conversation.

“Yes, bruising to your larynx is, in fact, a side-effect of tying yourself up around your neck, and so you should put your oxygen mask back on and show me what you mean when you said there is no body,” Merlin answered as Eggsy stared at Guinevere.

“Well, I don’t really deserve to be at the table,” he stated and Merlin reached out, squeezing his shoulder again before retreating again.

“Yes you do. I always thought shooting the dog, when they preach trying to keep innocents out of line, was stupid. I certainly won’t be asking you to kill except in self-defense,” Guinevere answered with a snort as Merlin let out a low sound.

“Killing is a difficult thing. It drains and stains and drags and eventually you look back and have a lifetime of weights dragging down on you,” Guinevere answered and her eyes went distant as Morgana cleaned off her glasses on her sleeve before she went back to the tablet.

She hadn’t switched with Merlin, he vaguely remembered that.

“I won’t ask that of you. Now, you probably don’t care you killed Arthur. Years from now, you probably still won’t. But there are probably other decisions that will drag at you,” Guinevere answered and she inhaled sharply, before she shook her head.

“I’m not expecting an answer now, but sometime within…” she answered, only to get cut off by Merlin setting down the tablet in front of Eggsy.

“Mordred, don’t move your head. Eggsy, you need to see this,” Merlin stated and Eggsy turned his head only to find himself staring at Harry Hart, lying on a bed, hooked up to a shit-ton of machines, an oxygen mask over his face, and bandages around his head.

“Harry’s alive?” Eggsy asked in a choked voice.

“Oh good. I like him,” Morgana stated as Eggsy reached out to hold onto the tablet.

He wanted to ask, but instead he curled up a bit on the chair and stared at the tablet. He couldn’t hear anything, but there it was. “Yes, he is. And breathing on his own,” Merlin answered and Guinevere made a pleased sound.

“Well, we lost our Gaw-…” Guinevere stated, only to be interrupted by Eggsy saying, “I’ll be Gawain.”

Silence fell over the table. “Mr. Unwin, are you sure?” Guinevere asked and Eggsy nodded.

“As Gawain, I’ll be doin’ a lot of stuff like with Valentine, right?” Eggsy asked.

“And I’ll get to keep my sister and mum and get them away from Dean?” he continued.

“Well, less world-threatening, but probably. More extraction and infiltration, but not for a while. And of course. The houses around Harry’s are very much ones that are owned by Kingsmen,” she stated.

“Which I always felt was stupid,” Merlin muttered.

“And I’ll get to help more that way?” Eggsy asked.

“Yes,” Guinevere answered.

“Then I’ll do it,” Eggsy stated and Guinevere made an approving sound.

“Well then, welcome Gawain,” Guinevere responded and Eggsy nodded, staring at the tablet and the rise and fall of Harry Hart’s chest.

Maybe he’d make Harry Hart proud now.


	2. Talks and Dogs

The red and white fur of the Phalène is silky under Merlin’s fingers as he scratched under her collar, the dog sighing softly as she settled more in his lap.

He stared at his screens and didn’t even twitch as he reached down to pick up the red Border Terrier at his feet. She whined a bit as she was lifted one handed, but settled easily enough once she had joined the Phalène in his lap. The Phalène yawned and curled up further as the Border Terrier half plopped on her.

“I bet you two can’t wait for Mordred to be back,” he murmured softly and he heard a quiet whine from behind him.

“Fen, down,” Merlin called, not even looking away from his screens as a crystal ball on a stand pops up in the middle of it.

“Merlin,” he greeted as he brought the screen up, blinking a bit when he saw Harry on the hospital bed, stripes of light across his legs showing how much time had passed since the first contact just that morning.

 _“Good,”_ a voice rasped.

“Mordred,” Merlin warned and he sighed when he heard some scrabbling behind him.

“Fen, _down_ ,” Merlin ordered, turning slightly to stare at the three-legged brown and black dog covered in scars, half a tail, a missing ear, and a missing eye (opposite side of the ear).

The dog whined and lay back down on his bed, the other three dogs (an Irish Setter, a yellow Lab, and a black Flat-Coated Retriever) having not budged from their beds.

Their tails were wagging slightly though, but Fen was quiet as he settled on his bed a bit more firmly.

 _“Be nice to my dogs,”_ she rasped again.

“Mordred, talking won’t help you heal,” Merlin responded softly as he focused on the screen, neither dog in his lap having stirred.

“And I am being nice to your dogs. Your foundling is the one who keeps getting worked up over your name,” Merlin added softly, staring at Harry on the bed, mentally doing some math to discover that it was 3 pm, more or less, in Kentucky.

 _“Then don’t say my name,”_ Mordred retorted, her voice giving out slightly on the last word.

“Elaine, please stop talking,” Merlin asked.

Mordred doesn’t respond, but he can hear faint scratching and his view of Harry is cut off by a piece of paper.

_That’s not my name._

“I can’t use your name or your foundling gets all worked up,” Merlin responded and the paper disappeared.

Merlin gave a small smile at that as he began to pet the two dogs in his lap, though his smile died when he heard Mordred begin to cough. For a brief moment, Merlin lost sight of Harry (which had his heart clenching slightly) and instead it was filled with a hospital gown, garish and horrible, a slight plastic curve which can only be an oxygen mask at the bottom of the glasses.

Each cough seems to rip and tear at Mordred’s throat and Merlin buried his fingers into the fur of both dogs, the vastly different textures helping to keep him grounded. The gasping breaths, followed by Mordred leaning over a bucket to spit out some saliva (which is thankfully not tinged with blood), helps to calm him down and Merlin soon finds that he is staring at Harry again, just watching him _breathe_.

There is a ripping sound, followed by _very_ muffled sounds (most like a combination of the oxygen mask and the fact she’s injured her voice box) and then more tearing. Merlin watches Harry, making sure that he is keeping an eye out for anyone reporting in.

Percival has, panting and shaken, and begging for word on Roxanne.

All Merlin had to say was that Roxanne was safe before the man broke down into relieved sobs and thankful prayers, the blood that had gotten smeared across the lenses more than telling that Perceval had gone through what Harry had.

His vision of Harry breathing is cut off again by the, slightly reduced, paper.

 _If you let him lay under your desk this wouldn’t be a problem_.

“None of your dogs are going under my desk,” Merlin retorted and the paper disappeared again.

More tearing and Merlin frowned when the sideways K in a circle began to flash in the bottom right corner of his screen. “One second Mordred. A Knight is reporting in,” he stated and Harry is slightly obscured by a thumb’s up.

Merlin switched the feed and winced when he saw the carnage. _“Tristan, reporting in,”_ the man’s tired voice filtered in.

“Merlin here,” Merlin answered.

 _“Oh, thank God,”_ Tristan responded dully.

“This all from the chips?” Merlin asked.

 _“I think so. Are Kingsmen allowed to retire?”_ he answered.

“Kingsmen are allowed to retire,” Merlin soothed and Tristan made a low sound of relief.

“Do you require extraction?” Merlin questioned.

 _“Anyone available?”_ Tristan asked.

“Percival could. I know a couple of agents who are mostly whole that would be able to,” Merlin answered, thinking on Roxanne and Eggsy.

Eggsy who had passed out on a sofa in the same room as Guinevere and Morgana as they continued to try to figure out how to salvage what was left of everything.

Mordred was right out, considering she was hospitalized.

Damn that was going to be hard to get together. _“I think I’ll be fine,”_ Tristan stated.

“Contact me if you need extraction,” Merlin answered as he saw the Kingsman symbol flashing in the bottom right corner again, the bottom left holding a stagnant crystal ball on a stand.

 _“Of course Merlin,”_ Tristan answered and disconnected as Merlin connected to the reporting Kingsman.

 _“Percival again. Roxanne is really okay?”_ he questioned.

“She’s really okay,” Merlin answered and he heard Percival let out a shaky sigh.

 _“I should have never sponsored my own niece,”_ Percival stated and Merlin blinked a little as he began to scratch the Border Terrier behind her ear.

“You always had high hopes for her,” Merlin stated.

 _“I can’t…she’s…I never had kids. I just was never inclined in that fashion. I should have let it end,”_ Percival responded and Merlin pondered over what to say.

He knew how Percival felt, about letting one you were close to go out to face death. Whenever the Kingsmen spoke of their relatives, their recruits, Merlin sometimes (always) thought of too old eyes in a too young face.

“Would either of you have been happy with that?” Merlin asked.

Percival sighed. _“No. She always wanted more. And so did I,”_ Percival answered.

“Then there is little you could have done. At least this way you’ll know she’ll never die alone. You know I’m always with my agents,” Merlin answered and Percival let out a strangled laugh.

 _“Yeah, you are,”_ Percival answered.

 _“Do you have anyone Merlin?”_ he asked.

“Yes,” Merlin answered quietly and Percival sighed.

_“Are they going to be Merlin after you?”_

“No they won’t,” Merlin responded quietly.

 _“You have pictures on your fridge don’t you?”_ Perceval asked and Merlin resisted the urge to laugh at that.

“So do you,” Merlin answered and Percival gave a laugh.

 _“Yes, I do. Good night Merlin,”_ Percival answered.

“Good night Percival,” Merlin answered and quickly reconnected to Mordred.

“- _posed to be in_ bed _young lady! Now, I know you love your uncle, but you need to rest and not move about! We would like you alive to see tomorrow’s sunrise!”_ the nurse on the feed scolded and Merlin wondered if Mordred was scowling or staring with a face of stone.

Merlin winced as the world went brighter for a moment and then Mordred was back to staring at Harry. _“You breathing all right?”_ the nurse asked, all warm brown eyes and tightly coiled black hair in a braided bun on the top of her head.

A shift, like a nod. _“You kept talking, didn’t you? We’ll have the specialist come down to look at you,”_ the woman soothed and then she was gone.

Merlin twitched slightly when the paper appeared.

_Not even Saoirse and Eliza?_

“You cheeky _brat_ ,” Merlin stated, even as he pet said dogs a bit more, the paper disappearing.

There was a strangled sound, which could have been a laugh, and there was scratching.

_Well, Saoirse is my first dog from you and Eliza is from Harry._

“I can’t believe I got you more than one dog,” Merlin responded and the paper disappeared.

There was no scratching and Merlin leaned back slightly, petting the dogs before he sighed. Soon there was ripping and more scratching and the paper was back again.

_I can._

Merlin resisted the urge to chuckle and nodded a bit. “I’m sure you can, considering you have six dogs to prove it,” Merlin answered.

The paper disappeared and there was Harry. “Stop contorting your neck, Mordred. I can see Harry all I wish when he gets back home,” Merlin stated and there was a pause before Mordred was staring at the paper fully.

_Fen and Eliza would have happened anyway. You were the one who just made it insane._

Merlin pointedly sipped his coffee. “It isn’t insane, as you yourself protest whenever anyone brings up the sheer amount of dogs you own,” Merlin answered.

_That’s because it is not._

Merlin snorted a bit at that.

 _It is not_.

“No, it is not. Six dogs is usually more than one person has at a time, however,” Merlin answered.

_Eccentric then._

“That’s just code for an insane rich person,” Merlin remarked, hearing the door opening behind.

_I am an insane rich person._

“This is true. Hello Eggsy,” Merlin responded.

“How did you know it was me?” Eggsy asked in his normal accent.

_Why are you talking to breakfast?_

“I am not talking to breakfast, I am talking to the new Gawain. And because you don’t knock,” Merlin responded and noticed when Eggsy carefully came to stand next to him.

He looked a bit better than this morning.

_Hi Eggsy, is Merlin being nice to my dogs?_

Eggsy looked around, staring at the dogs. “How many does she ‘ave?” Eggsy asked.

“Six,” Merlin answered as Mordred wrote the number on the paper.

He looked around the room, glanced at the dogs on Merlin’s lap and nodded a bit. “Merlin’s takin’ good care of ‘em Mordred,” Eggsy stated and Merlin was surprised to see her clap slightly.

“Happy ‘bout that, is she?” Eggsy asked with a tiny smile.

“She loves these mutts,” Merlin muttered as Mordred picked up the pencil again.

_Fen is the only mutt. The rest are purebreds._

“Fen, the one wit’ the mess of scars?” Eggsy asked.

He still sounded tired, but it wasn’t as bad as this morning.

“Yes,” Merlin confirmed as Mordred wrote it.

“I have to sign off Mordred. Keep safe and behave,” Merlin stated and Mordred drew a **:P** on the paper.

Merlin sighed a bit as she quickly wrote, _Yes Merlin._

“Good afternoon Mordred,” he stated and disconnected with a low sigh, staring down at the dogs on his lap.

“She lets you watch her dogs?” Eggsy asked.

“Morgana and Guinevere mostly were while I was training you and Lancelot,” Merlin answered as he carefully woke the two dogs.

He soon had them on their leashes, mainly because Eliza had more than once taken off and gotten someone (Merlin or Mordred) soaked in mud. “Join me as I take them for a walk?” Merlin questioned and Eggsy nodded a bit as he stood up properly.

“Sure,” Eggsy answered.

“Wonderful. Walking five very energetic dogs is exhausting,” Merlin stated.

* * *

They had been walking for about an hour, Eggsy with the two small dogs and the black dog while Merlin walked Fen and the other two. Merlin, while walking, had kept an eye out for any messes made by the dogs, while typing on his tablet, which was illuminating their path. “How did she get six dogs?” Eggsy asked.

“Presents, except for Fen. She just…brought him in, one day, banged up and ready to bite off hands, quite literally,” Merlin answered calmly as he flicked frowned at his tablet.

“Wot happened to the puppies not picked?” Eggsy asked.

“They got put into homes, or were trained for work here. Search and rescue, water rescue, guard. We have non-Kingsmen agents that work with dogs. If Fen was faster, he would probably go with Mordred on missions within the UK,” Merlin answered.

“You mean if he ‘ad all four legs,” Eggsy stated.

“Oh, no. We have a three-legged dog that was only retired recently. Fen just can’t complete the obstacle course fast enough, even with additional assistance. As such, he cannot, officially, be used on missions. If she happens to bring him along that is entirely up to her discretion” Merlin answered.

“Wot use is a dog?” Eggsy asked.

“A person walking a dog calmly down the street is not going to be noticed,” Merlin answered with a shrug.

Eggsy sighed and, gently, ordered the dogs he was walking to heel.

They obeyed easily. “I think she should help me with JB,” Eggsy stated.

“Your dog can act as an effective guard dog for a small toddler. I think you did a fine job,” Merlin responded.

“Thanks Merlin,” Eggsy answered, only to pause when he saw Merlin touching his glasses.

“Merlin,” Merlin stated.

Merlin nodded sharply. “Understood Bedievere. Extraction will be wheels up in half an hour,” Merlin stated and looked at Eggsy.

Eggsy handed over the leashes and waited. “Go to the room you went to earlier. Tell them you need a full kit. And get your suit on. You’ll need the bullet proofing,” Merlin ordered and Eggsy nodded once before he took off.

Not even a full day as Gawain and he was already running off to save another agent.


	3. Extraction and History

"Right, a full-kit already? All right, guns, knives, garrotes, or hand to hand?" Morgana asked the moment the words leave Eggsy's mouth, already dressed in his, repaired, suit.

"Guns," Eggsy answered.

"All right, we're going to do an abbreviated one. When is wheels' up?" Morgana asked.

"Twenty minutes," Eggsy answered.

"Very abbreviated. Come with me, you’ll need to pull from my kit,” Morgana stated and Eggsy frowned as he followed after her.

“Your kit?” Eggsy asked.

“Every Sorceresses has a kit that they take on their usual missions. Generally preferred weapons and the like. The only full-kit prepared is mine that has a preference for guns,” Morgana explained as she opened a side door and stepped into a large armory.

She immediately reached under and dragged out a long black box. “This is my sniper rifle. You cannot borrow this,” Morgana stated and then pulled out a secondary box.

“These are my handguns. You can borrow these,” Morgana stated and Eggsy nodded a bit.

“Mission?” Morgana asked.

“Extraction of a Kingsman,” Eggsy answered.

Morgana brought up something and nodded. “All right, we’ll go with ammo over firearms. You’ll take these paired Glock 32s, and the ammo to go with them. Remember, three shots; head, throat, heart. You want them to stay down,” Morgana stated and Eggsy nodded a bit.

“They’re going to be trying to kill you, but try to be quiet. When you get back, we’ll pile together a kit for you,” Morgana stated and stripped him out of his coat.

She then proceeded to hook him up with a holster that would hold both Glocks at his lower back and allow him far easier access to the ammo. “After you run out, just go to hand to hand. If you have to use the pistols to beat on anyone, slam the grip into their temple, but try to just reholster them,” Morgana stated as she glanced at her glasses.

“You have five minutes, let us hurry,” Morgana stated and soon he was back in his coat.

It wasn't lying right, but Morgana gave a small shrug. “You won’t be dressed like this again with this set-up,” she stated as she settled his glasses on his face.

“Yes ma’am,” Eggsy answered.

“Morgana is fine,” she stated and Eggsy nodded once.

“Now, get running to where the planes are kept. Your pilot is probably waiting,” Morgana stated and Eggsy nodded before he took off, taking a bit of a…shortcut that allowed him to do his parkour.

He could easily do it with the setup and without losing, or loosening, a single thing.

* * *

Eggsy didn’t recognize the pilot that had taken him, but Merlin had reassured him that he was to be trusted. In the air, Merlin began to run Eggsy down on the mission and where the extraction was needed.

Bedievere had infiltrated a human trafficking ring about a month before V-Day. On V-Day, they had turned on each other, Bedievere in the eye of the storm, which resulted in him being caught.

He had been going in as an accountant with no fight experience, and his trained movements had quickly outed him. The head of the organization had come down, personally, to see to it and that’s where Eggsy came in.

“Get in, get him, and myself, out?” Eggsy asked.

 _“Yes,”_ Merlin and, surprisingly, Morgana said at the same time.

“Am I goin’ to have two voices goin’ on in my ears?” Eggsy demanded and made sure the Glocks were loaded.

 _“Not usually. I am just tagging on Merlin’s back to see you in action,”_ Morgana answered and he nodded once.

 _“The plane will land, so you don’t have to make a jump this time, but it is a thirteen kilometer hike to the destination,”_ Merlin stated.

“Got it,” Eggsy stated, prepping to disembark quickly.

 _“Hurry Gawain. Bedievere has the worst scores of all the Kingsmen in hand-to-hand,”_ Merlin stated and Eggsy gave a confirming sound before he was off the plane, quickly heading in the direction the compass on his glasses pointed him to.

* * *

It was a bloody mansion in the fucking country.

Eggsy wasn’t sure if he should laugh or curse as he hedged along the wooded perimeter, keeping an eye out for motion sensors. “Wish I had a sniper rifle,” he hissed.

 _“I wasn’t letting you borrow my girl,”_ Morgana stated.

Eggsy made an agreeing noise. He had gotten quite attached to the sniper rifle he had used in training and had pinned a fellow recruit who had tried to use it, despite the fact Merlin had told them that ‘claimed rifles don’t exchange hands until the owner washes out’, to the wall with a threat of bodily harm following shortly after. _“I’ll give you his rifle from training Morgana,”_ Merlin stated.

Morgana doesn’t respond, which Eggsy is grateful for considering that a group of guards have decided to come through. He stills in the shadows and then, with a tiny shrug, knocks them out, quickly and efficiently, taking all their key cards.

 _“Effective,”_ Morgana praised as Eggsy heads toward the mansion, trying to keep to the shadows.

The first keycard he tries gets him inside and he has a gun prepped as he steps through the front door.

There are blood stains and…other kinds of stains. He is quick and he is quiet, carefully combing through every room, looking for hidden rooms and running out of places Bedievere could be, until he finds a hidden staircase.

It was probably once a servants’ stairway, but when the mansion was remodeled, turned into a hidden stairway. The stairs curl in a way that give Eggsy a disadvantage, so he keeps as to the middle of the stairs as he can and goes down, drawing his secondary gun.

When he is almost to the bottom, a spray of automatic gunfire has him dropping and rolling the rest of the way. He’s bruised, but alive, and not hesitating to fire three times.

The man drops and the rest come out. Eggsy doesn’t hesitate to shoot to kill and use every trick he has to have them shoot each other instead. There is silence over the comms, and he focuses on just getting out of this alive. He ducks around behind someone and yanks the guard around to use him as a shield, wincing at the way he feels the body take the bulk of the damage.

If anything gets through, Eggsy doesn’t feel it as he shoves the body forward and three more bullets and his first gun is out on the first clip, his second gun having long needed to be reloaded.

Eggsy ducks around, and reloads the clips as quickly as he can, barely managing to get the Glock in his left hand up to fire quickly. He pants softly and then moves, searching for where Bedievere might be held, Merlin giving him instructions to unlock and open doors as he goes.

He gets to the end of a hallway and the final door before he finds Bedievere, who looks like hell when Eggsy finally gets the door open.

His right hand is broken and he’s bleeding from his head in a way that has matted his red hair. His suit was also torn and damaged in a fashion that had Eggsy wondering if there were knife wounds, or broken ribs, under it all. _“Next stop Kensington,”_ Merlin stated.

“Next stop Kensington,” Eggsy repeated in an accent borrowed from Harry.

“Oh, good. I was not quite ready to face another round,” Bedievere stated, even as Eggsy began to assist him.

“Can you shoot?” Eggsy asked.

“Left handed in reality,” Bedievere stated and Eggsy checked the clips in the Glocks before handing him the one he was holding in his right.

“You cover left, I’ll cover right _bruv_ ,” Eggsy stated and Merlin sighed heavily in his ear.

“Galahad’s proposal, right?” Bedievere asked as he grabbed the gun and grunted when Eggsy hauled him onto his feet.

He would have hit the ground, except Eggsy caught him, taking most of his weight. “Careful of the ribs,” Bedievere grumbled.

“Careful of the blood,” Eggsy retorted and Bedievere let out a sharp laugh.

“I like you Lancelot,” Bedievere stated.

“Not Lancelot. Couldn’t shoot the dog,” Eggsy retorted as he began to look out.

 _“Both of you stop chatting,”_ Merlin ordered and Eggsy breathed and then moved, raising a hand, firing three time as he took down a man stepping out of an office Eggsy had bypassed earlier.

The fight was quick, and Eggsy, carefully, deposited Bedievere onto the chair in front of the computer. “Finish your mission, I’ll hold them off,” Eggsy stated as he went to cover the door.

 _“Gawain, get out of there!”_ Merlin ordered even as Morgana said, _“Oh, I like you.”_

“Sorry Merlin,” Eggsy answered, ducking back as bullets hit the doorway before he rolled out and fired again.

He moved quickly at that, reloading as he went, firing three times quickly before he retreated back to the office. “Got it, let’s _go_ ,” Bedievere stated and Eggsy helped him to stand again.

Bedievere still needed to lean heavily on him and Eggsy resisted the urge to ask. There would be plenty of time later.

 _“There is a back entrance. Take it,”_ Morgana stated.

 _“That will take them farther from the plane,”_ Merlin argued.

Eggsy rolled his eyes and headed for the back entrance. What was an extra kilometer or three, really?

* * *

Eggsy was halfway to their rendezvous point when he took a fucking _bullet_ to the leg.

The only reason Bedievere didn’t hit the ground was because Eggsy had managed to catch himself on a tree. “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ _kiddin’_ me!” Eggsy hissed, even as Bedievere tried to stand on his own, which nearly sent him to the ground.

 _“Did you get shot?”_ Morgana asked and Merlin gave a confirmation.

 _“It must have hit a weak point. The suits aren’t meant to be used twice in a row like this,”_ Merlin stated.

“Stop it,” Eggsy hissed and pulled them further back into the shadows as three men rushed past them, one too well-dressed to be anything but the head of the operation.

“Fuck,” Eggsy whispered and Bedievere nodded before Eggsy sighed.

He didn’t hesitate to raise his gun and shoot three times. The following fight was more of a game of fatal hide and seek, resulted in Eggsy almost taking a bullet to the head, and Bedievere cursing at him three times as they made a lopsided mad dash through the woods.

* * *

“He’s lucky he didn’t go into shock,” Merlin grumbled as he watched over the two agents in the plane headed home, noticing that Eggsy was doing pretty well with field medicine.

“He’s truly Gawain,” Morgana stated as she tapped at her tablet.

“Here’s a basic outline for his kit,” she offered and Merlin looked at it.

Sniper rifle, a custom Glock 32 hand gun, a set of throwing knives, and a garrote. “Remove the knives,” Merlin stated and Morgana made a sound.

“Why? His scores in knife-work were better than any Kingsmen in recent history,” Morgana protested.

“He doesn’t like handling them,” Merlin stated and Morgana huffed, but she obviously got rid of them.

“The rest has to wait for him,” Morgana stated and Merlin nodded, still watching them, even as Bedievere, Emerson, yanked Eggsy around to get at the bullet.

Eggsy cursed him out, violently, but he was also pale and starting to tremble. “Bedievere, he’s starting to go into shock,” Merlin called and Bedievere cursed, violently.

Merlin blinked a bit.

He hadn't heard Bedievere curse quite so creatively since his first mission, which had resulted in a success, but with so high a cost Merlin had thought they would lose their new Bedievere in the same instance they had found him.

* * *

Emerson was camped out on Eggsy’s couch, which had Merlin pausing.

Emerson had kept him separated from others after his first mission as a Kingsman had resulted in his partner for the mission dying in front of his eyes. He had been cold and distant, politely professional.

He didn't camp out on sofas for injured colleagues who had gotten shot getting him out.

Merlin frowned and glanced at Eggsy’s vitals, noting he would be able to head home tomorrow, before he looked back over at Emerson.

Who was awake and watching him in return.

“He’s Lee’s son, isn’t he?” Emerson asked, and Merlin nodded.

“Fucking Harry, couldn’t he have just left that family the _fuck_ alone?” Emerson grumbled, but he doesn’t get up, doesn’t leave.

Merlin wondered if Emerson had known Lee Unwin. If that was who he met up with on Friday nights, and Merlin decided he didn’t wish to know.

The man had barely smiled since his first mission (a horrific mission that had, technically, been a success, but the cost had been a Kingsman agent and half the extraction team, plus civilians that, to this day, Merlin still isn’t sure of the count on) and all those smiles had been prior to Lee Unwin’s death.

Suspicion is not knowledge, and Merlin feels that in this case, ignorance will help him sleep at night.

“Try to get some sleep,” Merlin stated and left, pulling up the feed for his rooms as he walked away.

He sighed softly when he saw the dogs were on his bed.

Again.

At least Fen had stayed in his own bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not my usual speed.
> 
> I am shocked I am writing as fast as I am.


	4. Coming Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter deals with PTSD, death of family and friends, and the meaning of home.

The moment Percival, Brannon Quincy on his home soil, stepped off the plane, he had to resist the urge to grunt in pain when his niece, Roxanne, crashed into him, hugging him tight. He hugged her back, gently petting her hair as she buried herself into his chest.

She hadn’t done that, consciously, since she was five years old, and had decided she was too old to hide herself away against her uncle.

He had barely gotten his 24 hours with her before he had immediately been sent onto the next mission on Arthur's orders, and even knowing Merlin would never lie to him, the feeling of having his niece safe and sound in his arms was a balm to his soul. "Miss me that much my little pebble?" Brannon asked gently as she held onto him.

"Merlin told me you were okay,” she mumbled and Brannon pulled her closer, curling around her.

He knew exactly what she meant. He knew that feeling, knew that while Merlin would never lie, he couldn’t rest easy till he was _sure_ that they were okay. "I'm fine, Pebble, just fine. A few bruises, scrapes, and bumps, but other than that, just fine," he answered gently and Roxanne held on.

Oh, it was good to be home, safe and whole.

Merlin left them alone for five minutes before he marched over and pulled them both to medical so Brannon could get his injuries looked at.

* * *

Tristan, no not Tristan anymore, just Horace Baines now, stumbled into the back of the shop. He wanted to…

He paused to breathe against the wall, long fingers pressing against the stab wound, the bandage having long soaked to the point of uselessness.

He wanted to go home whole, he wanted to not have nightmares. He wanted to hug his wife close and bury his face into her shoulder and beg for the last few days to just be _erased_.

With tremendous effort, and help from Edward their front man, he got to the private train to take him to the Kingsmen Mansion.

Merlin was waiting for him when he stumbled off the private train and helped him down into medical.

“Can we erase it?” Horace asked quietly as Merlin got his blue sweater stained with blood.

“No,” Merlin answered.

Horace nodded tiredly and allowed himself to be checked over by the doctors.

Merlin stayed the entire time, a steady calm presence that never faltered, even as he typed away at his tablet.

* * *

Dindraine ignored the looks she gained as she limped through the Kingsmen mansion, heading for the hidden elevator. She was battered and bruised and she wanted to hear Morgana and Guinevere arguing.

She wanted to play chess with Isolde while ignoring Laudine and Lunet’s bad advice. She wanted to watch Enide crochet while Brangwain had her head pillowed on her lap, eyes closed as she held Enide and Mordred’s yarn, if Mordred decided to knit instead of twirl one of her knives.

She wanted to listen to them talk over each other as they wrote up reports and roll with them playfully in the training yard. She wanted to curl up with Gawain (though she had died a year ago, trying to extract some Kingsman who didn’t even know she existed) and try to coax Guinevere into playing poker with them all when they, miraculously, all had the same day off.

She wanted to play with Mordred’s pack of dogs and maybe add a dog of her own to the motley crew.

She wanted to get out of her combat gear, wash the death off of her, and go curl up in her gifts of knitwear that reminded her of the fact that while she had not had a family as a child in Kenya, she had one now, that loved her and worried for her and would march straight into hell to get her back.

Dindraine wanted to be _home_.

When she entered the room however, she knew that she would not get home.

Not for a while.

“How many?” she asked, her native accent (because she was from Kenya, no matter what her passport said) easily slipping out in this place so safe.

“Four,” Guinevere answered and Dindraine inhaled slowly, and Harriet Ayers (a name she had been given, like most, upon entering the Sorceresses) exhaled softly, blinking back tears.

“Laudine and Lunet, Enide and Brangwain. We just found out about Brangwain, but Morgana…Morgana saw the rest,” Guinevere stated and Harriet nodded.

“Mordred?” she asked.

“In Kentucky, in hospital. Galahad wasn’t dead. He’ll probably become Arthur,” Guinevere answered and Harriet nodded.

Guinevere let her go, and Harriet walked down the hallway to her rooms here.

It was under the hot water that she sobbed for family lost.

* * *

Yvain came back to the mansion quietly and checked himself into medical without even a twitch, something the lithe man never did.

He had two broken fingers and didn’t say a word, no matter how much Merlin tried to get him to talk.

He didn’t react until Merlin gently called him, “Damian.”

And then it burst like a dam giving way, the man turning into an inferno of fury and helplessness.

V-Day had taken everything from Yvain but his job.

Merlin put him up for psychological evaluation and hoped V-Day wouldn’t take his job too.

* * *

Erec walked into the tailor shop two weeks after V-Day without so much as a word he was alive.

Merlin nearly broke his already twice-broken nose with his tablet. He wore a brand new tailored suit and only scoffed slightly when Merlin berated him.

He is the only Kingsman agent to return physically unharmed, but the fact he’s drinking only highly caffeinated teas tells Merlin he’s not sleeping.

Erec, or Garret Pearce, never shows it on his face if he’s not sleeping because he had three older sisters and helped them with their makeup.

Merlin sends him to the Kingsmen psychologists and hopes that it will be enough.

* * *

Isolde limps into the mansion the same day Garret gets there, shooing her aid away. Her gray hair is in a bun at the back of her head and she’s wearing her favorite pair of black flats, even if they don’t compliment her grey slacks with a blue blouse, nor the white shawl over her shoulders. She huffs and grumbles as she makes her way up the stairs to the mansion stairway and glares at Morgana who is waiting for her.

“Oh, sod off,” Isolde grumbled.

“I didn’t say anything Nora,” Morgana answered and Isolde, or Nora (or Ms. Watkins, even if she’s widowed twice for the greater good, once even pulling the trigger herself on her husband), huffs.

“You were thinking it. Who else is here?” Nora responded as she accepted the new glasses Morgana offered her.

“The regular staff, the remaining Kingsmen, though the Tristan is going to be leaving, so three they need to replace in all. Dindraine is here, along with myself and Guinevere. Mordred and Galahad are in Kentucky still, mostly for reasons that are not entirely clear, though they should be coming home within the next month, whether Galahad is out of his coma or not. Oh, and our new Gawain killed the old Arthur after refusing to shoot his dog, a nice pug by the name of JB,” Morgana recited as she held her tablet up for Nora to look over.

“I’ll miss them,” Nora stated.

“They did make this place home. Laudine was married,” Morgana answered.

“Want me to go?” Nora asked softly.

“No. Guinevere is going,” Morgana answered and sighed.

“It gets harder and harder every year, doesn’t it?” Nora asked.

“Every loss. One day, we won’t be needed anymore,” Morgana murmured and Nora hugged her.

“Thank goodness for that,” she responded and Morgana laughed tiredly with a nod.

“Thank goodness for that,” Morgana agreed and they stepped onto the hidden elevator to head down to their section.

* * *

“Up and about I see,” Merlin stated as he walked into Eggsy’s medical room to see him standing, though he was using Emerson as a support.

“Yeah. Merlin, I’ve left Mum and Daisy alone too long,” Eggsy answered, his words polished, but already slipping back into his natural accent.

Merlin frowned a bit and glanced down at the tablet. “Do you even have a place to move them?” Merlin asked.

“Yeah. Also came with an offer to quietly remove Dean,” Eggsy answered as Emerson made him sit down before he fell down when he tried to get his shoes on while standing up.

“What’s he talking about?” Emerson asked even as Eggsy continued to get dressed, putting himself together.

“Harry never told me and out of respect I didn’t delve into his use of a button tracker that also worked as a speaker and a microphone,” Merlin responded and Eggsy huffed.

“So that’s how that posh bastard did it,” he muttered and stood up with a stretch, getting his suit to settle on him like a second skin.

“Look, let me go move Mum an’ Daisy, all right? Then we can interrogate me. Oh…Merlin, can I borrow an umbrella, like the one I ‘ad at Valentine’s?” Eggsy asked and Merlin nodded.

“Check one out. Type in your codename,” Merlin stated and Eggsy gave a salute before he was gone.

“You’re going to follow him, aren’t you?” Merlin questioned.

Emerson only gave a soft grunt before he walked out of the room and Merlin wondered if that was a confirmation or not.

Merlin hesitated and then connected to Eggsy’s glasses, which he was wearing. “Are you going to come back after you settle them in?” Merlin asked.

 _“Yeah. Morgana wants us close, I think,”_ Eggsy answered.

“Very well. Check into medical before going to speak to Morgana, if you would please,” Merlin answered.

 _“Anythin’ you say Merlin,”_ Eggsy answered and Merlin disconnected.

He would review the glasses’ recording later.

For curiosity’s sake.

* * *

“Still not awake?” Merlin asked.

 _“Nope,”_ Mordred’s raspy voice answered.

“Mordred, you keep talking and you might end up never being able to talk again. Please write notes,” Merlin responded.

 _“You coming out?”_ she asked and Merlin rubbed his temples.

“Tomorrow. I’ll be there tomorrow. It is time to get you two home,” Merlin responded.

 _“Good. Want my dogs,”_ Mordred stated.

Merlin smiled.

 _“Also, miss you,”_ she added and Merlin nodded a bit.

“Miss you too. Get some sleep. I have a late flight to take,” Merlin answered and there was a thumb’s up before he cut the feed.

It was time to bring the last of their members back home to roost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, one of my famous bridging chapters. Mainly to introduce the other characters in a way that was hopefully entertaining and also to give a timeline to work with, it being about three weeks after the end of V-Day.
> 
> Also, to set up for the next part of the plot.


	5. Overtime

“You are not going alone,” Guinevere stated.

“And who should I take then? Horace? He’s still not cleared to go home, though he has talked with his wife to assure her that he’s fine. She’s in hospital, but otherwise fine,” Merlin responded.

“Take Percival and Lancelot with you. I would suggest taking Gawain, but he really does need to get to know this side of the table before getting sent out on another mission,” Guinevere responded.

“Percival has cracked ribs,” Merlin argued.

“That’s why we said to take both of them. Besides, this way Gawain feels like he has a connection. He and Lancelot are, ironically, and yet fittingly, quite close,” Morgana stated as she walked into the room.

“Dindraine doing all right?” Guinevere asked.

“Peachy, but you really can’t go alone Merlin. Even if it is just in case you have to break them out of the hospital. It is _entirely_ possibly Mordred killed someone _before_ V-Day hit,” Morgana responded.

Merlin sighed and then nodded. “Very well. I’ll go get Percival and Lancelot,” Merlin gave in and walked away.

“He’s so picky,” Morgana tsked.

“Indeed. What have you got for me?” Guinevere asked.

“That Jane Doe, finally got a lead on her identity,” Morgana answered and Guinevere quickly focused on the tablet Morgana was turning towards her.

* * *

“Harry survived getting shot in the head?” Roxy asked sharply.

“My apologies. We’re running on partial staff. Quite a few were taken out in V-Day, one way or another,” Merlin responded.

“Harry got shot?” Brannon questioned.

“The former Arthur didn’t make the call?” Merlin asked.

“No, and where is he, anyway? Very unlike him to not be involved,” Brannon stated.

“He’s dead,” Merlin responded as he picked up speed.

“You really haven’t told anyone anything, have you?” Roxy questioned.

“Lancelot, we can count the number of Kingsmen remaining on one hand. I’ve been a bit busy,” Merlin responded as he waved them into the plane.

Brannon and Roxanne walked ahead of him and Merlin followed them up. He glanced inside the cockpit and nodded to the pilots before he withdrew, closing the door. “Why the rush?” Brannon asked.

“Because there is a strong chance that when Harry wakes up, he may have side-effects from the chip. He was affected by it and I want to make sure that if he does, in fact, have side-effects from it, he’s around doctors who will be able to subdue him, not be killed by him. He is also needed here before we can call a meeting of the remaining table to explain what happened, officially retire those who wish to retire, and refill the table,” Merlin stated as he settled on the chair, waiting patiently.

“So, most of it is just so you can have your husband home, but you’re coating it in a thin veneer of professionalism?” Brannon asked and Merlin glared.

“Harry and Merlin are married?” Roxanne asked.

“Not officially. It wouldn’t work for my identity. And Harry has his own residence. But essentially, yes. And, in fact, were it just that I wanted Harry home, I would wait for him to be out of the coma. As it is, we may have to take a boat back,” Merlin responded as the plane took off.

* * *

Merlin resisted the urge to tug at his sweater as he, after an hour long wait, got up to the receptionist's desk. "Hello, my name is Malcolm Blackwood. I am looking for my daughter, Elaine Blackwood? She was in the area around the time the world went mad with her uncle, my brother-in-law, Harry Hart? I've just managed to get a flight out here," Merlin greeted and the woman, a flustered volunteer most likely, stitches all down the right side of her face, waved for some identification, which Merlin passed over to her.

"British?" she questioned and Merlin nodded without bothering to correct her.

While he was, technically, a British subject, he was _Scottish_.

"Right, um....Oh, Elaine Blackwood, yes, here she is. Um....the local sheriff is going to want to speak with you," she stated and Merlin nodded while Morgana cursed in his ear.

* * *

“An orderly was found dead with her?” Merlin asked, wondering if he should have brought Roxanne and Brannon with him.

Then again, the less who knew about his ‘family’ life, the easier it was for all. “Yes, we think he may have been killed before the attack happened,” the sheriff stated, even as Morgana swore creatively in his ear.

Merlin nodded a bit and waited as the sheriff, Oswald Griffith, sighed, taking off his hat to run his fingers through his thinning hair. “Look, I’m sorry about this, but she’s not communicating and we were hoping that she could identify the murderer and her attacker,” the sheriff stated and Merlin barely kept from slumping in relief, even as Morgana sighed.

 _“I really didn’t want to have to break her out of jail again,”_ Morgana stated.

Merlin didn’t say anything, though he shared the sentiment.

“She may not have seen who the attacker was,” Merlin stated and the sheriff nodded in agreement.

“We think she might have, unless she was blind-sided. There is also the fact they were both found out of Mr. Hart’s room, specifically in a supply closet. We think the one who attacked her was in on the terrorist attack. Mr. Hart is a tailor to some important people, if the card we found in his wallet was anything to go off of. We think the terrorists might have been after him,” the sheriff stated.

 _“You know, sometimes I wish we could hire Americans for the British arm of the Kingsmen instead of just sending them to the American Kingsmen. Oh, sorry, in America, they’re the **Legends** , forgive me,”_ Morgana retorted sarcastically.

Merlin didn’t even twitch.

“Well, my brother-in-law is easy to talk to,” Merlin answered.

“Right, right, um…just if you can talk to your daughter that would be good. If she saw anyone, we would prefer a description, but without any suspects, most likely this will be a cold case. God knows we’re full up with ‘em right now,” the sheriff stated.

“Are we free to go then?” Merlin questioned.

“Yeah. Everything’s up in the air. I was up at my cabin when it went down, and came back to all of this. Called in by…some poor guy who wasn’t even supposed to _see_ the Governor’s office, let alone _become_ Governor,” the sheriff stated and Merlin nodded.

“If you need to contact us, here’s my number. While international calls aren’t the best, well…I do try to help,” Merlin stated and the sheriff nodded and Merlin quickly walked out to head for Harry’s room.

Normally, a patient in the ICU would not share a room, but with the crowding the hospital was going through and, from what he could gather from the volunteer’s mutters, the fact Mordred (though called ‘Miss Blackwood’ or ‘that brat’) had kept escaping her room on the _third floor_ and getting to Harry’s, on the opposite side and on the _second_ floor, all without being seen.

(And Merlin doesn’t want to know her route, because if he knows, he’ll have to be impressed and furious at her, especially since she did all of that while carrying medical equipment, so he doesn't dwell on it.)

When they get to Harry’s room, Mordred is sitting on a chair that allows her to quickly get between Harry and the door, an IV stand next to her, holding the oxygen tank and two IV bags.

She shifts and Merlin knows she has something dangerous that’s she’s dropped down into her palm as she turns to look at him.

He will never get used to seeing too old eyes in a too young face that don’t even lighten when she realizes who is standing there. Merlin stepped past the nurse, to the chair, and Mordred is shifting, moving and driving her head into his sternum as she scrambles to cling to him with one arm, the other supposedly lax at her side as she buries herself into Merlin’s hug, her glasses digging into him through the layers of sweaters.

Merlin lets out a long sigh and tightens his hold on Mordred as he looks up at Harry, surprised to see one bleary eye staring back at him before he blinks and slips back into sleep.

* * *

It takes four days, many arguments, and one of the Kingsman doctors flying out personally to get Harry released into their custody so he can be taken back to England.

Merlin is sure the only reason it _only_ took four days is because Harry is starting to wake up (and seems to have his memories) and they _desperately_ want to get rid of Mordred, who has stolen three scalpels and two pocket knives.

Merlin can only get her to return the pocket knives.

He might have had a chance to have her return the scalpels, if he hadn’t told her that they would be taking a ship back to England.

“I. Hate. Ships,” Mordred rasped out.

“Harry can’t fly,” Merlin answered and Mordred huffed before she settled in the chair next to Harry and refused to look at Merlin.

Merlin would be lying if he said that he wasn’t smiling at what equated to a temper tantrum.

A very cat-like temper tantrum, but a temper tantrum all the same.

And to think, only five years ago and she wouldn’t have reacted at all, let alone remind him that she hated ships.

It was a good day, even if Harry wasn’t really interacting with the world just yet.

* * *

“Who is she?” Roxanne asked and Merlin looked up from his tablet where he was coordinating with Morgana and Guinevere on missions that had to be done and who to send.

Mordred had just walked past them from Harry’s room to hers and locked herself in her cabin again, most likely to whine to Dindraine about being on a boat (Mordred had a lot of bad luck involving boats in that they usually blew up on her or she got violently seasick), and he looked at Roxanne. “An agent,” Merlin responded and went back to his tablet.

He heard Roxanne huff and mutter something, and Percival sat down next time him. “Agent of what?” Percival asked.

Merlin looked over at him and then back down at the tablet.

“Of what needs to be done,” Merlin answered.

Neither Percival, nor Lancelot, asked again.


	6. Nightmares and Bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!!!
> 
> This chapter has nightmares, and almost drowning.
> 
> Please proceed with caution

The corridor is silent and deserted as Eggsy crept down the rows of shut doors, peeking through the windows to get an idea of what was behind them. Each room was as silent and empty as the corridor, and Eggsy clutched at his gun a little tighter, pausing to push against a door under a window, to focus on getting someone’s attention and he fell back.

He exhaled sharply and was on his feet in moments finding himself standing outside.

The air was warm and there was a breeze and across the way was a church.

A quaint little church all covered in blood and Eggsy felt the gun fall from his fingers as he ran. He stumbled through the doors and found only carnage, bloody and ripped apart (and he thought he saw Roxy there, blonde hair stained blood red) but he was already stumbling out, into the sunshine and the heat, and…

“Harry?” he questioned, throat dry and a sour taste in his mouth.

Harry Hart was standing there, coated in blood, face like the Phantom of the Opera without his mask on, half of it bloody and ruined, but he was aiming a gun at Eggsy, and there was a voice calling his name.

“You disappointed me Eggsy,” Harry stated and Eggsy felt like he was gutted.

Not just because of the words, but because of how  _flatly_  they are delivered. Resigned, as if Harry had never truly expected anything better from him, and Eggsy opens his mouth to protest and instead gets the wind knocked out of him by a bullet to the chest.

He hits the ground and sees a too blue sky until Harry is there, a silhouette and Harry’s grip tightens on the gun and--

Eggsy jerked awake, his scream catching in his chest and collecting in his throat before exiting his mouth in a high pitched whine. He shivered as JB whined and clambered up onto his lap, licking at his neck and face and Eggsy clutched at his Pug. He buried his face into the fur and trembled when he felt a weight at the foot of his bed.

His head snapped up and he was surprised to see the Irish Setter, Ruby, clambering up onto his bed, before flopping across his legs. “Wot?” he questioned.

“I had hoped you could be woken,” an accented voice stated and Eggsy looked over to the door to find Harriet standing there before she walked in, the pack of dogs trailing after her, minus Fen and Ruby, who was staring up at him with big sad eyes.

Fen was not a people dog and seemed only to tolerate them in a vague manner that had Eggsy wondering if the three-legged dog was any different when around the mysterious Mordred.

“Wot?” he asked again, feeling the tears falling down his face and Harriet gently wiped his face off with a handkerchief.

Eggsy stilled, watching as Harriet easily lifted Eliza and Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha according to everyone he talked to) onto the bed while the rest of the dogs made their way up. “Mordred spoils them, letting them sleep in her bed all the time,” she stated and Eggsy just nodded numbly, scratching JB under his collar, which had the Pug making happy snuffling sounds.

“You want some company?” Harriet asked and Eggsy hesitated.

Harriet waited, a silhouette at the side of his bed, before he shuffled over slightly, Ruby whining as she was still using his legs as a bed. Harriet nodded and settled next to him on top of the covers, Eliza and Saoirse immediately crawling over to settle between her and Eggsy.

“Want to talk about it?” Harriet asked and Eggsy shook his head.

There was silence as Eggsy, slowly, slumped back against the pillows.

The mansion was silent and still as the dogs shuffled and settled on Eggsy’s bed and he looked over at her. “Why?” he asked.

Harriet shifted and let out a low sigh. “You’re one of us. We don’t let one of our own suffer alone, if they want the company. And I couldn’t wake you up by calling your name, or your codename, so I just got Mordred’s Pack. Except Fen. He’s pining for Mordred,” Harriet answered and Eggsy stared at her.

She looked over at him, or her silhouette shifted that way and she huffed softly before she stared back at the door, which was cracked open slightly.

“We’re family because we don’t have much in the way of it outside of the mansion. And family shouldn’t let you down,” Harriet answered and Eggsy cuddled JB closer.

“Okay,” Eggsy answered and they fell into silence.

“You want me to stay?” Harriet asked.

Eggsy stayed silent, feeling the warm weight of numerous dogs, and he wondered if this was why Mordred had _six_ dogs. To surround herself with this feeling of warmth and security, though from what he knew of Irish Setters, they were more likely to hold the flashlight for the burglar than to alert anyone to a burglar’s entrance.

“If you want,” Eggsy answered.

“Want to help me walk this bunch tomorrow morning?” Harriet asked.

“Sure,” Eggsy responded and Harriet made a content sound.

Eggsy was positive he wouldn’t fall asleep again, but he blinked and his bedroom was filled with the dawn’s light.

* * *

It was tradition, in the Sorceresses, to walk the dogs before breakfast. So, with JB trotting with Eliza and Saoirse (who was wearing a little doggy sweater which was ridiculously adorable) at Eggsy’s right heel and Ruby at his left heel, Harriet on his right side with Gwen and Raven on the inside with Fen on the outside, they walked the grounds.

Occasionally Ruby tried to wander to sniff something, but a click of his tongue had her heeling again quickly, tail going a mile minute when he pet and praised her. “Normally I would have things to give them, but Mordred put a ban on those things before she left,” Harriet stated and Eggsy nodded.

He stared at the dogs, and felt like this was a dream, but it felt too real. “How did we all fit on that bed?” Eggsy asked as they walked the dogs before breakfast.

“It helps that three of them were small and could fit between us, but the rest just slept on top of us, essentially. I still haven’t figured out how to get them to stay on their beds,” Harriet answered, Fen at a strict heel while the other dogs were given a bit more leeway.

“Why doesn’t Fen get as much freedom?” Eggsy asked.

She glanced over and sighed. “Fen is people shy and aggressive. Not even Mordred can just randomly pet him and he adores her. He’s always happier with her around, but because of the fact he’s a biter, and getting a muzzle on him he won’t do much, we have a protocol. It is, drop the other two leashes, and subdue Fen. You’ll get the training. It is standard for Sorceresses anyway. We deal with so many guard dogs that we need to know how to subdue without harming them,” Harriet answered.

“Real animal friendly,” Eggsy stated and Harriet nodded.

“The dogs can’t help how they were trained. Fen can’t really help how he reacts to people either. Until Mordred came along, all he knew was pain and violence and fear. Mordred thinks there is hope for him. And she’s always been good with the dogs, so we’re not entirely sure where she found him,” she explained as they continued to walk along.

They were in the mansion kitchen, feeding the mass of dogs and Eggsy flipped a pancake out of the skillet and onto Harriet’s plate with a grin. Harriet seemed surprised, but she grinned as she settled at the table.

It was subdued, though Eggsy could understand why.

Of the seven (there had been no Gawain for about a year until Eggsy had filled the position) agents that had sat at the Sorceresses’ table, only three had survived. He wasn’t sure how badly the Kingsmen had been hit, but he could understand how the sudden loss of a majority of the table could make it hard.

“So, you got family outside the mansion?” Harriet asked, her real accent back now they were in the kitchen coded only to the Sorceresses and Eggsy nodded.

“Yeah, me mum and my little sister, Daisy,” Eggsy answered.

“That why you go into this?” Harriet asked as Eggsy made more pancakes.

“Harry bailed me out of jail because my dad was his previous proposal and he died savin’ his life and I called a number on the back of a medal and he saw something in me, I guess,” Eggsy answered and Harriet huffed a bit.

“Morgana shot me,” Harriet stated and Eggsy’s head snapped up to look over at her.

Harriet grinned and rolled her left shoulder. “There was this compound. Most of my group, we were dead. Morgana was the only sniper they had, so she was there, and I think this might have been before Mordred, but I can’t really tell you. Mordred and I showed up here close together. Anyway, I got grabbed by the head guy. Real piece of work, this American white guy, middle aged, thinking he ruled the world. He’s got a gun to my head, and Morgana is refusing to pull that damn trigger, and so I yell at her to. Wake up a few days later with a job offer. I took it. I figured I could do good work with them, and they encourage me questioning why we’re doing something. So far, they haven’t let me down,” she explained and Eggsy huffed a bit as he poked at his pancakes.

“When I am goin’ to meet Mordred?” Eggsy asked.

“When she gets back. She’s with Galahad now, and she’s going to keep an eye on him till they get back,” Harriet answered.

Eggsy poked at his food and Harriet didn’t ask.

They ate breakfast in silence and when it was over, retreated to their own rooms.

* * *

There is water filling up around him and Eggsy turns around, water sloshing around his ankles.

 _“Eggsy,”_ Harry stated and Eggsy whined.

He knew that tone. He _hated_ that tone, wanted to dig it out of his ears and skull.

 _“Eggsy, I am so disappointed in you. But I should have expected as much_ ,” Harry stated and the water was up high enough that he could swim and there was no way out.

He struggled to find a way, trying to find a way out, but the water was already coming up to his face soaking it and he gasped, eyes wide as he stared up at the dark ceiling, something licking his face.

“Argh,” he protested, gently shoving in case it was JB, only to find that it was large and shoving a bit harder, struggling to get to his light and flicking it on to see Ruby next to him, paws on the bed, tail wagging happily.

“Good dog,” he praised as JB snuffled and yipped.

Eggsy scooped JB up and then frowned upon seeing that Ruby was alone. Eggsy groaned and rubbed his face off with the corner of his sweat soaked shirt before he got up.

“Come on, let’s get you back to Harriet,” he stated as he stood up, settling JB on the ground before he had both at heel, the pair trotting after him as he headed to Harriet’s room.

The door is open and Eggsy pushes it open, Ruby rushing forward to jump up on the bed, which doesn’t even have Harriet twitch.

Fen is on his bed, tense and watching Eggsy, so Eggsy goes on the opposite side, and flicks on the light.

Harriet is up, flailing and tear tracks on her face.

“Ruby got me,” Eggsy offered in a rough voice and Harriet nodded a bit as the Ruby settled, resting her head on Harriet’s knee under all the blankets.

Harriet shifts over and Eggsy joins her without a word, JB crawling up the steps at the foot of the bed, snuffling a bit as he makes his way over blankets and other dogs.

* * *

“You look like hell,” Morgana stated when Eggsy joined her at the table.

“Fanks Morgana,” Eggsy responded tiredly and she chuckled.

“Chin up. Galahad is coming home tomorrow. I am putting you and Dindraine on greeting duty. Bring the dogs with you. Mordred is with them,” Morgana ordered and Eggsy stared.

Morgana smiled at him. “Lancelot and Percival are also there,” she added and Eggsy nodded.

She gave a nod to the door and Eggsy took off, going to find Harriet.

* * *

Eggsy gasped for air as he awoke and raised trembling hands to bury them into his hair. He shook and JB whimpered, pawing at him and Eggsy didn’t hesitate to scoop JB up, cuddling him close and desperately trying not to fall apart.

_You had so much potential and you threw it all away!_

The words echoed in Eggsy’s ears and he had no idea if it was what Harry had really said or if it was just his imagination making it worse.

“My brain is a fucking prick,” Eggsy grumbled and JB whined as he licked at Eggsy’s cheek.


	7. A Quick Reunion

Eggsy yawned behind his hand as he walked next to Harriet down the Kingsmen docks (apparently the Kingsmen owned some docks and at this point, Eggsy just didn’t question it anymore and Morgana had laughed when he told her that) to the pier the ship was supposed to dock at with JB and Mordred’s six dogs, Saoirse tucked in his jacket because it was cold enough to have their breath come out in clouds.

“When they due to come in?” Eggsy asked and Harriet hummed a bit.

“Soon? We weren’t given a definite time,” Harriet answered and Eggsy nodded.

He feels Saoirse shiver a little and he coos at her before he bundles her closer until the shivers die down. JB doesn’t seem to care that he’s paying attention to another dog, just happily trotting next to Eliza. “He’s fixed, right?” Harriet asked.

“Yes _Mum_ ,” Eggsy stated and Harriet sniffed.

Eggsy grinned and kept an eye on Ruby, who was sniffing eagerly at the ground, brimming with energy. “I can’t wait till she gets back. As much as I enjoy watching these dogs, I prefer dogs that can lay down and keep still for long periods of time. Maybe Mordred might let you take them on next time she heads out of the country on a mission. You seem like the active type,” Harriet stated.

“I do Parkour,” Eggsy answered.

“Join Mordred when she takes these dogs through their paces. You’ll see something. She may even use you for the tracking trials,” Harriet stated and Eggsy stared at her.

“Use me for wot?” he asked.

Before Harriet could respond, Eggsy heard a shout of, “Mordred, don’t-…”

And then a splash.

Harriet and Eggsy shared a look, Fen yanking on his leash, and they ran to the pier, surprised to find a small form swimming away from the ship. Fen was barking excitedly and the figure seemed to be going faster. “She alive?” Merlin shouted.

“Yes!” Harriet answered as Mordred pulled herself out of the water of the pier, Harriet barely able to contain Fen, who was dancing at the end of his leash.

The other dogs had picked up on his excitement and Mordred, brown hair plastered to her scalp and face looked up with a grin. “Fen, here boy,” she called and Harriet released the three-legged dog who charged down the pier and nearly sent them both back into the water.

“I’m salty and disgusting, don’t lick me,” she protested in a raspy voice as Eggsy and Harriet quickly got the other dogs calmed down, more or less.

Mordred stood up, broad shoulders and bright smiles as she walked up to them, Fen trot-hopping loyally at heel. “Mordred, you’re not supposed to jump from ships unless they are going to explode,” Harriet stated and Mordred shrugged before she stared at Eggsy, who stared at her wet form, before holding Saoirse a little closer.

“I know she’s your dog, mate, but she’s just warmed,” Eggsy stated and Mordred grinned.

“Perfect,” she chattered out as the ship came to dock at the next pier over.

* * *

Roxanne had seen a few crazy things, but watching the female agent jump over board to get to land faster was something she hadn’t thought she would ever see. “Always. She always does this. She knows not to do this,” Merlin grumbled under his breath as the ship docked.

“She does this often then?” Roxanne asked.

“She hates ships, boats, and any way to travel over water that doesn’t involve swimming in it,” Merlin answered and turned to help the doctor prepare Harry to go ashore.

Docked, Roxanne hesitated before Merlin gave a nod, and she strode down the gangplank to find Eggsy standing there. “Eggsy!” she exclaimed and Eggsy gave a wave.

She ran toward him and the only reason she didn’t crash into him and hug him tight was because she saw that he had a dog tucked into the front of his jacket. But his one armed hug is tight and warm and she avoids the dog as she hugs him tightly, burying her face into his neck. “How is he?” Eggsy asked.

“Waking up on occasion. We have a cab waiting?” Roxanne questioned.

“A few. Harriet is with the girl that jumped from the ship. And her dogs,” Eggsy stated.

“Dogs?” Roxy asked and Eggsy nodded with a wide grin.

“So many dogs Rox. This is one of them. Seer-sha,” Eggsy introduced, showing the silky furred dog in his jacket.

“From what I can tell, she’s the one who’s been around the longest,” Eggsy stated.

“She has,” Merlin stated and Eggsy looked up and his eyes skipped right past Merlin to Harry, on a hospital bed, Percival helping to keep it steady as they wheeled it up the pier.

JB woofed happily and Eggsy feels Roxy’s grip on him tighten, because they are close, they’re mates, and she’s amazing, the best. Harry is awake and he’s blinking, bundled up, an oxygen under the nose tubes there, but he’s awake and he stares at Eggsy.

His head is half bandaged up and there is probably no eye under the bandages, but Eggsy doesn’t care as he takes a shaky step forward. “Eggsy,” Harry slurs out and Eggsy moves, and he is surprised by the smile there, and he’s inhaling too quickly, exhaling too fast, his eyes burning, and Harry is smiling at him.

“So proud,” Harry slurs out before he slips back into sleep and Eggsy smiles, holding Saoirse protectively close as they get Harry moving again.

He started slightly and turned, surprised to see Merlin smiling at him. He squeezed his shoulder and nodded once. “I hate to ask, but could you stick with…Harriet? You have Saoirse,” Merlin asked and Eggsy nodded.

Merlin squeezed his shoulder again and walked up the pier. “Oh, Lancelot, don’t touch the three-legged dog. He’s not very people friendly,” Merlin warned.

* * *

The dog is missing an ear, an eye, and half his tail in addition to the leg. His head is on the female agent’s lap and the woman Roxanne assumes is Harriet is still drying her off as she shivers. The floor of the cab is crowded with dogs, the three small dogs all on Eggsy’s lap while the other dogs are just all trying to keep themselves absolutely still as they practically vibrate, but Roxanne is staring at the three-legged dog.

The dog that takes up the most room, long limbed and long bodied with a face that reminds her of a German Shepherd’s, but it is _wrong_ as well. He’s content with his head on the shivering girl’s lap, a smile on her face as she pets his head. “Hey, Rox, you miss me?” Eggsy asked, all wide smiles and bright eyes when she finally looks over at him.

“Yes,” she answered.

“I missed our girl here. You can have your dogs back,” Harriet stated as she reached up to rub the towel through the female agent’s hair, only to be stopped by a low growl.

Whether it was from the dog or the agent, however, Roxy couldn’t say.


	8. Braids

Eggsy awoke with a sharp gasp, clutching at his sheets and blankets. JB whined softly and Eggsy got out of bed, getting dressed in jeans and a loose jacket and picking up JB before he headed for the medical center. He didn't go to visit, it was freakishly early, he just--

He checked on Harry, saw that his vitals were strong, and then headed outside because he felt like there was electricity under his skin, and Harry's only been back two days, but somehow that makes the nightmares worse. There is more being shot, more feeling Harry press the barrel of the gun against his throat and pull the damn trigger and watch him bleed out on the pavement, and it  _hurts_  and he wants to ask, but even if Harry smiled at him, even if he called him Eggsy, he can't be sure.

The last things Harry said to him before almost dying was that he was disappointed in him, that he _failed_ Harry and a part of him is trying to show how he did. How he should have just shot JB, except the gun had felt…right in his hands. He doesn’t talk about it, doesn’t think about it, usually but right now it all that he can think about.

Outside, the sun isn’t even up, but the lights outside are on and he sees a hooded figure with a bunch of dogs.

It doesn’t take a leap to figure out that it is Mordred, but he still calls out, “Mordred!” as he jogged out to her.

The figure paused and Ruby runs over to him, an excited rush of fur. “Oh, Gawain,” Mordred answered and he watched as she tugged her hood down to reveal her hair was in a complex weave of braids that gave her a crown curled around her head.

“Whoa, that’s sick!” he stated and Mordred frowned, touching the braids.

“Means it good, cool, awesome,” Eggsy supplied as JB trotted up to the other dogs.

“Oh, thanks,” Mordred answered and knelt down to pet JB, the pug quickly falling into ecstasy as she found the spot.

Mordred looked up at Eggsy and grinned. “Want to come on a run with all of us?” she asked and Eggsy nodded.

* * *

Mordred was brutal.

They practically ran, climbed, and _jumped_ over the most convoluted path possible to a freezing cold lake, where only Eliza and Saoirse didn’t jump in to swim. Even Fen with only one front leg joined in the swimming, and Eggsy was happy to sit on the shore, panting softly until Mordred stumbled back, shivering while the dogs shook out their coats.

Mordred was shivering and her lips were turning blue, but her hair was still tight in the braids that are soaked through. “Ready to head back?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Mordred chattered out and Eggsy resisted the urge to wrap his jacket around her as they headed back.

* * *

Mordred had peeled off her soaked layers the moment they stepped inside, ignoring the way Harriet, Guinevere, and Morgana all paused in eating as the dogs wiggled around her, Mordred heading for the communal showers while Eggsy sat at the table.

“What’s for breakfast?” he asked.

* * *

Mordred had new braids. Or, more specifically, the braid she had now was loose and pointless, constantly losing strands, and obviously annoying her.

“What happened to this morning’s braid?” Eggsy asked and Mordred shrugged.

* * *

Eggsy grinned as he carefully worked on braiding Roxanne’s hair out of her face, careful as he wove the braid back while she talked with the surviving Kingsmen, Percival raising an eyebrow as Roxanne shifted her head when Eggsy asked.

“You know, she’s never sat still like that for me,” Percival stated.

“You yank out my hair,” Roxanne retorted as Eggsy deftly twisted the braid around.

“I’ve got a little sister, bruv. She’s tiny and if I tug too hard she wails. And I tried to prevent that as much as I could,” Eggsy answered in his natural accent, relaxed as he continued to work on Roxanne’s braid.

“Why?” Percival asked.

“Oh, reasons,” Eggsy answered as he carefully finished off Roxanne’s braid.

* * *

Eggsy sat next to Harry’s bedside, JB on his lap, scratching under the dog’s collar. “And so I terrorized Dean’s goons a bit. Did the whole ‘manners maketh man,’ bit, like you did when we went to the pub for a pint after you got me released,” Eggsy answered, scratching JB behind the ears as he did so.

JB grumbled happily. “I got me mum and Daisy all settled in, and Mum’s seeing some people, for…things,” Eggsy continued softly, glancing over at Harry, who was still sleeping.

That, he had been told, was the drugs. He was going to be going in for more surgery, now that he was stable, and--

Merlin told him, calmly and reasonably and helped to calm Eggsy down when he had started to have a panic attack. And maybe, just maybe, Eggsy’s nightmares later that evening had been about Harry bleeding out from his head and Eggsy unable to keep the blood in and with Harry’s dying breath regretting even proposing him.

Eggsy, who is talking about how Daisy had discovered a new love of Paddington Bear, suddenly falls silent when Mordred wanders in, Fen limp-hopping at heel. Her braid is completely gone now, completely unraveled and this free, Eggsy is surprised how it comes to her lower back.

She paused upon seeing him, shrugged and walked over, flopping into the second chair, Fen lying down at her feet. “Where are the rest?” Eggsy asked.

“Ruby’s with the trackers. She joins them when they are doing a trial drag. Normally I join, but Saoirse is with the Kingsmen groomer along with Eliza, and Gwen and Raven are with Morgana, playing ‘Fetch the Guns’. They’re trained for that. I think it is partially because Morgana doesn’t want to clean out their rooms,” Mordred answered with a tiny shrug and Fen let out a long sigh.

“After I collect all of the dogs, I’m letting Saoirse stay with Merlin and then taking the rest for a long roaming walk. No swimming this time. Fen needs a lot more walking and activity than the rest, omitting Ruby. Ruby could happily track someone all day and be a happy camper,” Mordred answered and Eggsy blinked a bit before he huffed out a soft laugh.

“I get what Harriet meant about activity,” Eggsy stated and Mordred grinned, and she seemed like a six year old in an adult’s body with that smile.

Fen let out a heavy sigh and Eggsy watched as Mordred began to braid her hair over her shoulder.

“Mordred?” he questioned and Mordred gave a hum.

“Never mind,” Eggsy stated and focused on Harry again, surprised to see him watching them with a small smile on his face before he went back to sleep.

* * *

Eggsy spends a lot of time braiding Roxy’s hair, especially as the date for Harry’s more…invasive surgery draws near. Eggsy has taken to, mentally, calling it The Surgery, and tries not to think about it.

Naturally, it is all he can think about and even going to spend time with Mum and Daisy doesn’t help. He braids Mum’s hair and Daisy’s and fixes them. His Mum lets him, knowing he needs to do something with his hands and braiding hair--

Well, braiding hair is useful, at the very least.

Roxanne doesn’t seem to mind either, bringing printouts of braids she would like to try out.

* * *

Harry is going in for The Surgery today and he is surprised when Mordred sits in front of him, shoulders and back tense enough that he thinks her muscles may have turned to steel under skin before she drops her hair. She very obviously sets a hairbrush and hair ties to the side and, very purposely reaches down and grabs her ankles tight enough Eggsy is terrified that she’s going to draw blood.

“Braid please,” Mordred asked through gritted teeth and Eggsy is a little terrified to touch her, because it is obvious that she doesn’t trust him.

That she doesn’t want to have her back to him, let him do this.

That she is doing it anyway says a great deal about _why_. That she’s noticed Eggsy’s increasing braiding of _anything_ he can get his hands on to the point that Emmerson actually provided him with colored leather so he could make bracelets.

It doesn’t help keep him calm as much as braiding hair does.

“Want anythin’ special?” Eggsy asked.

“Just braid it,” Mordred gritted out and Eggsy obeys.

He is careful as he braids, keeping an eye on the way she doesn’t relax. He weaves her a crown of braids that keep her hair off her neck and out of her face. It takes an hour to get it right, and Harry still isn’t back out.

Mordred takes a sharp, shaky breath, and goes, “Another please.”

* * *

Mordred sits through four braids in total before she retreats quickly, shaking and trembling, and obviously not happy.

Eggsy thanks her as she walks away and works on braiding the bracelets.

Hours later, when Harry is out of The Surgery and Merlin shows up, Eggsy isn’t surprised when the man asked, “Where’s Mordred?”

“She tried to help me, but I think it upset her,” Eggsy offered and Merlin stared at him before he nodded and told Eggsy that Harry had come through with flying colors and that he could see him now.

Eggsy listened and went to go sit in Harry’s room, though not before packing up all the bracelets he had made before doing so.

As Harry always said, a gentleman never leaves a mess behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I promise, next chapter will go back to the Sorceresses (I wanted to focus on Eggsy a bit and right now the Sorceresses have put everyone for downtime), Harry will _talk_ , the Jane Doe that's been mentioned will be brought into the fold, _AND_ there will be Kingsmen things!
> 
> YAY!!!
> 
> I know, next chapter is going to be huge. (And have time-skip)


	9. Meetings and Assignments

_Report to the Sorceresses’ Circle at 13:20._

When Eggsy’s work phone had done the Sorceress Chime (it sounded what he figured magical spell sparkles would sound like; he was going to ask Morgana if he could have the thing from _Cinderella_ , the transformation song, put on instead) while with Mum, he hadn’t hesitated to reach over and open it. “Oh, Mum, I got to go,” Eggsy stated.

“Oh, it’s not even lunch yet,” Mum protested and Eggsy carefully stood up, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Well, I’m needed at the security firm I work at. Does security for a lot of businesses and the like and they want to see what I can see. Apparently all my times breakin’ and enterin’ are goin’ to be put to use,” Eggsy answered and Mum sighed, before she swatted him.

“Well, so long as you don’t get into trouble. They said somethin’ about helping you get degrees?” she asked.

“Yeah, maybe figure out how to take A-Levels, get into university maybe. I’m going to talk it over with my boss a bit more. Right now, I’m mostly being paid for discretion of the businesses and to do the physical breakin’ and enterin’ and the like, but on the level,” Eggsy answered and Michelle nodded a bit.

“So, not just businesses?” she asked.

“Can’t tell you that, but I do promise to be careful, Mum. But I have to head to work,” Eggsy stated and pressed another kiss to her cheek before he pressed one to Daisy’s forehead, smiling at the way she tried to keep him there.

He promised to see her later, and made JB stay with her, the physical manifestation of the promise he would return to them.

Then he headed out the door, sending a text back promising to be on time.

* * *

_Report to the Camelot Round Table at 13:20._

Roxanne frowned and glanced over at Uncle Brannon, who was frowning at his own phone. “Normally we have a couple of days warning,” Uncle Brannon stated and Roxanne frowned a bit more.

“I wonder if it has to do with Eggsy. He only failed the final test,” Roxanne stated and Uncle Brannon gave a small shrug before he tucked his phone away in the inner pocket of his suit.

“Well, we’ll pay for our dinner and then head to work,” he stated and patiently waited for their bill to be delivered, paying before Roxanne could even pull out her purse.

She glared at Uncle Brannon, who smiled. “Let an uncle spoil his niece,” he stated and Roxanne snorted, even as she hid a smile behind the rim of her glass.

* * *

_Report to the Sorceresses’ Circle at 13:20._

“Evelyn, Emily, I’m having lunch with you, right here,” Harriet stated and Morgana, or Emily as she was called off Kingsmen property, smiled as she put her tablet away in her bag before she focused on her tea.

“Well, just so you have the physical reminder,” Emily stated.

“Quite,” Guinevere, or Evelyn, responded and Harriet snorted as she leaned back slightly ignoring the looks she was receiving around the room.

She wasn’t sure if it was because of the pantsuit or because of her lack of ladylike mannerisms. Harriet also didn’t particularly care. She didn’t put on airs for anybody, except Evelyn, but only if she asked.

She didn’t ask, so Harriet didn’t put on airs.

* * *

_Report to the Camelot Round Table at 13:20._

Emerson huffed softly as he deleted the text, before he tucked it into his trouser pocket. He focused on tying his tie in the mirror with one hand just as his personal phone began to ring. He closed his eyes briefly and let his tie rest like a loose scarf around his neck before he picked up his personal phone.

With a sigh he braced himself for the conversation to come and answered with a falsely warm, “Hello Mother.”

One day, he wouldn’t have to do it.

He wondered if it made him a bad son that the idea of not having to do this ever again one day filled him with relief.

* * *

_Report to the Sorceresses’ Circle at 13:20._

“Oh, for the love of…” Nora grumbled and deleted the message.

“Something wrong Grandma?” Lily called from the flat’s kitchen and Nora shook her head.

“No dear, nothing at all,” she answered and gripped her cane before she carefully began to stand up.

“Grandma, what are you doing?” Lily asked, rushing out, strawberry-blonde hair falling out of her ponytail, flour streaked across her face.

“Well, what does it look like I’m doing? I’m standing,” Nora retorted and Lily sighed.

“No, Grandma, where are you going?” Lily questioned.

“To visit with some friends dear. They survived V-Day you know. Invited me for a cuppa, and I’m going! You, you have a young man to date, don’t you?” Nora responded.

Lily blushed and Nora smiled. “See, there. There she is, my beautiful, brilliant, granddaughter. Now, I’m going for a cuppa, you’re going for a date and I shall see you around teatime, but I shall call if I won’t be making it,” Nora stated.

“Well, you be careful Grandma,” Lily stated.

“I will dear, I will,” Nora responded and began to put together her purse, making sure the personal cell and the work cell were both in her purse along with her keys before she limped outside and to where her cab was waiting.

* * *

_Report to the Camelot Round Table at 13:20._

Damian stared at his work phone before he deleted the message and gave the call for the cab to pick him up at the hotel he was staying at. The sale of his former flat hadn’t gone through yet, though Merlin had promised that everything that was important (pictures and books and physical mementos) had been cleared out, Damian didn’t want any of it.

Merlin refused to let him burn it though.

He got dressed in his suit and went down to his cab, making sure it was a Kingsmen cab before he relaxed, playing with his work phone the entire time.

* * *

_Report to the Sorceresses’ Circle at 13:20._

“Aww, that’s not fair,” Mordred pouted as she frowned at her cell phone.

She poked at it moodily before she began to type a response, keeping half an eye on her dogs.

Fen was digging, but he did that. He liked to dig and so long as it wasn’t where anyone was going to get killed with it, he could dig where he pleased.

 _Can I be late?_ Mordred typed back.

 _No._ \- Morgana

_You get to deal with over-energized dogs._

There was a few moments of stillness as Mordred got the dogs back into motion, Saoirse starting to tire as Eliza darted, all six dogs on leash today.

 _No more than ten minutes late_. – Morgana

_Thank you._

Mordred beamed and continued on her walk.

* * *

_Report to the Camelot Round Table at 13:20._

“Truly, no warning whatsoever?” Harry asked as Merlin tapped away on his tablet.

“If we gave everyone a warning, I would get only excuses,” Merlin responded idly as he continued to work on whatever it was.

“We will technically be drinking to the old Kay,” Merlin stated.

“Kay died in V-Day?” Harry asked and Merlin frowned a bit.

Harry made a soft ‘ah’ and didn’t press. “He had an assignment in America, died, and Mordred was at your bedside in Kentucky, not even two hours away from the accident,” Merlin stated and Harry inhaled softly as he nodded.

“But we’ll drink to him all the same. Not so sure about Arthur,” Merlin muttered, tapping at his tablet sharply.

“What did Chester do?” Harry demanded.

“Attempted to poison Eggsy with the pen and ended up poisoning himself because he turned his back on the boy. I’ll show you Chester’s feed later. I think you would be proud of him,” Merlin answered and Harry’s lips thinned.

“It will be a table decision,” Merlin stated as Harry opened his mouth and Harry closed it again.

“Where is Mordred?” Harry asked.

“She’s with the dogs. Camping,” Merlin stated and Harry winced slightly.

“She learned about James then,” Harry stated.

“She learned about James,” Merlin confirmed.

* * *

_Report to the Camelot Round Table at 13:20._

“Fuck, I’ve got to go,” Garret stated as he slid out of the booth.

“What’s the rush?” the woman, lovely with black hair kept out of her face by hidden hairpins and Garret leaned over, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

“Love, I work for people who pay me very well to keep quiet. Normally, I get warning for meetings, but this means that someone paid a lot of money for my services. I will definitely call you once the meeting is over and see if we could have dinner instead?” he questioned and she sighed.

“All right. But only if you say my name,” she stated and Garret smiled.

“Hannah,” Garret stated and Hannah smiled.

“Got it in one. Go be a fascinating tailor,” she stated and Garret quickly retreated with a grin, slipping his work phone into his inner pocket as he did so.

* * *

Eggsy stilled as he followed Harriet to the Sorceresses’ Circle, finding a round table with what seemed to be a crystal ball in the center. “We liked the aesthetic,” Morgana stated and while Guinevere waved a hand to the seat directly to her left.

“Mordred is going to be late,” Morgana stated as Eggsy sat down at Guinevere’s left, Harriet taking the seat diagonal of him.

“She usually late?” Eggsy asked curiously.

“She’s only late when she’s upset,” Harriet explained as Isolde, or Nora, limped in.

Eggsy shifted, about to stand when Nora chortled at him. “Stand, and I’ll take my cane to your knee,” she warned.

Eggsy firmly settled in his chair and she chuckled as she settled in her chair. Morgana was polite enough to hide her smile behind her tablet, though Harriet openly laughed at him, and Guinevere sighed. “I am the mother of five year olds,” Guinevere muttered and Harriet winced.

“Please don’t say that,” she stated and Guinevere nodded slightly while Morgana settled between the empty chair and Guinevere.

“Right, glasses on,” Guinevere stated and Eggsy pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket, settling them on.

He noticed that everyone had different frames and was surprised to find the crystal ball was projecting information in a circle in a manner he was sure everyone could read. “This is Paul Masters, a computer expert,” Morgana stated and Eggsy frowned a bit.

The guy looked a bit familiar to him. “He was one of those captured by Valentine,” Morgana continued and Eggsy ‘ah’ed.

“I pulled him out of a cell,” Eggsy stated.

“All right, I’ll red flag you for this mission. If he sees you, it might tip him off,” Morgana stated and she tapped her screen, which shifted things on the screens so that, while Paul Masters’s picture was in the top left corner, his personal information was shifted to a list of crimes.

“We think he was imprisoned by Valentine after he made Valentine’s security system, because this man is not someone who cares about those around him,” Morgana stated as Mordred entered the room, five dogs trailing after her, Saoirse being carried, in various states of exhaustion.

Ruby immediately trotted over to flop at Harriet’s feet as Mordred sat down on Guinevere’s right, settling her glasses on her eyes as she did so. She leaned over to pick up Eliza, settling both of her small dogs on her lap, while Fen settled at her feet calmly, Gwen and Raven settling next to Fen.

“I could have brought JB?” Eggsy questioned.

“Yes,” Guinevere answered.

“Ooooh, do I get to kill him?” Mordred asked.

“We’re still deciding that,” Guinevere responded and Mordred pouted as she pet the dogs in her lap.

Eggsy stared a bit before he focused on the information. “So, he conned people, used their credit cards to buy under the notification limit, and helped make Valentine untouchable, supposedly? I mean, I thought Valentine was a big genius in computers,” Mordred stated as she continued to pet the napping dogs in her lap.

“Valentine was a computer genius wasn’t he?” Nora, or Isolde, asked.

“Yes,” Guinevere responded.

“Why would he need to even hire someone else to do his security?” Harriet questioned.

“And now it is less assassination, more good old fashioned digging. We need to get into Valentine’s estate,” Guinevere stated and Mordred huffed as she flopped back.

“Well, we’re going to need to do a full team line-up, considering there are so few of us. Plus we’ll need to make sure the Kingsmen don’t realize we’re there. A problem that comes up when competing with your own agency,” Guinevere stated.

“That being said, allow me to introduce Yun Chien. At the end of this mission, she’ll either by Brangwaine, or work with Morgana as codename Blasine,” Guinevere stated and a woman, broad shouldered and round faced, black hair cut to frame her face pleasantly entered with a warm smile on her face.

“Hello,” she greeted as made her way into the room, sitting next to Harriet as she was closest with only the slightest shift of her shoulders to show that she was calm.

“Well then. Gawain, you’ll be paired with Mordred on this assignment. You two need to work together to see if Paul Masters needs to be extracted, or assassinated. I have a hope, as you two traditionally sit across from each other that you’ll work well together. We are Sorceresses and we are often all we have in this world. So I trust you to be adults and actually discuss things,” Guinevere stated and Eggsy gave a nod while Mordred beamed while, somehow, pouting.

“We do apologize for sending you away from your dogs only a month after you’ve come back Mordred, but it is for Queen and Country,” Morgana answered and Mordred’s nose scrunched up slightly.

“Fine,” Mordred mumbled and Guinevere nodded before she focused on the pair.

“Isolde, you’ll be checking as to why Valentine would look elsewhere when he was fully capable and, if he wasn’t, Gazelle certainly was. Ms. Chien, Dindraine, you two will be heading out a week from now, as a pair of lovers, so play it up enough that no one will question it. We have reservations for the room directly below the suite Paul Masters will be in. Or, well, Paul Masters will be moved into that suite after a horrible break-in happens. A few times, which brings us back to Mordred and Gawain,” Guinevere stated and they focused on her once more.

“Mordred, Gawain, you’ll be heading out tomorrow night, First Class on an international flight out of Heathrow. No weapons, they’ll be waiting for you in the limo when you land. You’ll be going as step-siblings, Mordred as Elaine Blair, and Gawain as Gary Cervus. Collect kits and files from Morgana before you leave. The kits, while not including traditional weapons, will have things like clothes in your sizes, as well as weapons that won’t be noticed. After we give you the go ahead, you two will need to start doing a series of break-ins. Do your best not to take anything of sentimental value,” she continued and Eggsy nodded while Mordred seemed to hum to herself.

“So, no Fabergé Eggs?” she asked in a far too innocent tone and Eggsy choked on air when her words registered.

“No Mordred,” Morgana stated and Mordred giggled a little.

“Very well. Any questions?” Guinevere inquired and everyone said, ‘No Guinevere.’

“Good. Remember to report to Morgana for covers and kits. Gawain, Mordred, say good-byes you need to and insure that any pets will be taken care of in your absence,” Guinevere stated.

“How long will that be, exactly?” Eggsy asked.

“Three weeks. We couldn’t reserve longer without it looking suspicious,” Guinevere responded and Eggsy nodding, standing while Mordred continued to ponder what was being projected from the ‘crystal ball’ in the middle of the table.

* * *

For the first time in the history of Harry Hart’s tenure as a Kingsman, he was not late.

This probably had more to do with the fact that Merlin had been the one to take him to the meeting room in the mansion than anything to do with him. While PT had been coming along, Harry was still shaky and hit with fatigue, making walking long distances, like from his hospital room to the meeting room, next to impossible. So, he was, for the first time in his tenure, not only not late, he was _early_.

Percival actually clutched at his chest when he entered the room. “My God man, have you been replaced?” Percival questioned as he settled in the seat next to Harry while Roxanne sat down across from Harry, Merlin at Harry’s shoulder.

“No. It seems being in a wheelchair that I cannot control means that Merlin controls when I shall be places. For now,” Harry answered as he turned enough so that he could see Percival.

“What that means is, essentially, I forced him to be here on time,” Merlin corrected and Percival smiled at that as Yvain walked in quietly.

He paused, thinner than before V-Day when he was already thin, brown hair falling into his eyes before he made his way to his seat next to Percival, most likely. They greeted him quietly, even as Erec walked quickly in, settling in his seat across from Yvain, leaving a chair between him and Roxanne.

They greeted each other quietly and Bedivere walked in, completely ignoring Harry as he walked over to Percival, his tie in his hand. “Could you do this for me? Bloody torturers got my right hand and I can’t tie the bloody thing with one hand,” Bedivere asked.

“Galahad’s better with ties,” Percival stated and Bedivere stared at Percival before he shrugged and glanced at Harry.

Harry was sure that, if Bedivere were less of a gentleman, he would be glaring at Harry, but he still asked for help with the tie. Harry did his best, his depth perception still adjusting, hands shaking, but it seemed his hands would not fail him in this.

Bedivere gave his thanks and retreated to his seat on the other side of Yvain and out of Harry’s sight. “First order of business; our Tristan, Horace Baines, has retired,” Merlin stated and there was a soft mutter of condolences passed around the table.

“Second order of business; Kay, Riley Preston, perished in a car accident in the U.S.A. during his mission. We will need to send someone to complete it, but in the meantime…Lancelot, if you would serve the brandy,” Merlin stated and Harry heard Percival give a low sound which was almost lost under the soft clink of glasses touching.

Soon it was served and they drank to the memory of Kay before the brandy was returned. They settled and Merlin sighed, settling his glasses more firmly on the bridge of his nose.

“Third order of business; Arthur, Chester King, was a traitor and attempted to poison one of the finalists of the Lancelot Trials. Gary Unwin switched the glasses on Chester King, and, as such, there will be no drink to Chester King. Are there any objections?” Merlin stated and there were no disagreements.

Harry is not surprised to see the Roxanne has a look of barely contained fury on her face and Merlin lets out a low sigh. “Then the fourth order of business; who do we appoint as Arthur?” Merlin questioned.

Harry wants to groan, but stops himself, though it is a chore. Some of his filters are gone due to the brain damage and there is talk that they won’t come back.

Harry tries not to think about it most days.

“I propose Galahad,” Percival stated and Harry started.

He turned to look at the table, seeing Roxanne nod in agreement, but also seeing others give agreement. Bedivere, who seems to have held a grudge, albeit a polite one, for the past 17 years (give or take a few months), voices his agreement.

“Despite the fact he carries his heart on his sleeve, and no pun was intended so do not even _start_ Erec or I’ll make good on my threat to hit you with an experimental dart the lady who is equal to Merlin gave me to see what it does, he does have a good head on his shoulders. He’s also someone who would never be swayed by pretty words, nor allow others to dictate how he should handle things. I believe he will carry the Kingsmen into a new era. A new era that is desperately needed with these changing times. Plus more than a few of our fellow agencies like him,” Bedivere stated.

“Please don’t hit Erec with that dart. Very well, all in favor of Galahad being Arthur, say ‘aye’,” Merlin ordered.

“Aye,” the whole table stated, minus Harry, who was just staring at the table, trying to comprehend how they all trusted him to lead them true.

Like they trusted _Chester_ to do so, only to have him fail them all.

“All opposed say ‘nay’,” Merlin called.

Harry just swallowed and Merlin gave a small noise.

“The ‘ayes’ have it,” Merlin stated and Lancelot stood, pulling the chair at the head of the table away as Merlin settled his tablet on table.

Harry was then rolled away and settled at the head of the table, the head of the _Kingsmen_. “The King is dead, long live the King. To Arthur,” Merlin intoned.

“To Arthur,” the table responded and Harry just gave a small nod.

“Now, there is the matter of filling the ranks,” Merlin stated and Percival sighed.

“I can’t think of anyone already not in the Kingsmen that I would want to propose. Also, would we have to do it three times over, or would three candidates at once be sufficient?” Percival questioned.

“Perhaps we should recruit within the agency. There were those that would have made good Knights that were passed over purely because there was no opening at the table for them,” Harry offered quietly.

“But I know someone I would like to propose. And while I know that we cannot re-propose those from before, we should probably also avoid those that have siblings, or other close relations,” Yvain stated.

“There is also those that other Knights know,” Roxanne stated.

Harry shifted his head so he could see the whole table with his left eye, and there were nods. “This is true. We have mainly kept to those that we already know because who would go with someone they didn’t know for a chance that they didn’t even know existed three seconds before?” Bedivere asked.

“I can think of two,” Erec stated with a grin at Harry, which he ignored.

“Yes well, not everyone can be an Unwin. Besides, he failed to shoot the dog. The son. Which by the way, I move to remove that bloody test from the damned thing,” Bedivere retorted sharply.

There was silence, even as Roxanne frowned. “I think it is to show that you can trust the one giving the order. I trusted that Merlin would never order me to do something that would hurt me. Though…if that’s the case, I don’t know why they sent Eggsy, uh…Gary Unwin, to Chester King. He had said previously something about the man made his skin crawl. Though, maybe that was only to me. I think, even if Chester King had told him to shoot Valentine, he wouldn’t have,” Roxanne stated.

New to the table, she probably didn’t realize that Bedivere usually didn’t show emotion beyond a thin veneer. His obvious anger at the test was unexpected to the extreme. “He did not mention to me that he did not trust Chester King,” Merlin stated.

“Not even to shoot Valentine?” Yvain asked quietly.

“I don’t think Gary would have shot Valentine on Chester King’s orders even if Valentine had just gut shot Gal--Arthur,” Roxanne stated.

“Nice instincts. Maybe we should review-” Erec stated only to be interrupted by Merlin.

“Mr. Unwin has taken another position in the Kingsmen Agency and is ineligible for becoming a Knight.”

Another silence and Merlin frowned at his tablet. Harry gave himself a small shake, to shake off the disappointment he had for himself (it was his bloody fault, he should have never let his anger control his tongue that day he almost died) and gave a small nod. “I believe we should do three different selection processes. We can figure out an order at a later date, but they should probably be those that are unattached and with a strong survival instinct. Make sure they can all swim,” Harry stated.

“All in favor?” Merlin called.

“Aye,” Roxanne, Percival, and Yvain stated.

“All opposed?” Merlin asked.

“Nay,” Bedivere and Erec stated.

“Ayes have it. I shall send out the first call of name, along with a reminder of what that name traditionally specializes in,” Merlin responded and tapped his tablet.

“Glasses please,” Merlin stated and waited for everyone to be focused on the portrait above the fireplace before he continued.

“We need to send someone to finish Kay’s mission in the U.S.A. The copying, and the corrupting, of one Edwin Woods’s laptop, as well as a secondary mission of sending a two-man surveillance team to the Golden Oak Resort to spy on Paul Masters. Both of these missions pale in comparison to the finding, and retrieving, of the remaining Valentine SIM cards,” Merlin explained as the information of all three missions came up, before he pulled up the dossier on the Valentine SIM cards.

The meeting went well past sunset, only pausing when tea was served.

When it was finally over, Yvain was staying behind as he had not yet been cleared for missions (though that was kept from the table), Roxanne and Percival were teaming up to go find out what happened to the remaining Valentine SIM cards, while Bedivere and Erec were heading for the resort.

“Meet tomorrow at 10:00 for your official mission dossiers. Good night,” Merlin stated.

“Good night Merlin, Arthur,” the Knights intoned, mostly, as one before leaving.

* * *

“Harry, there is one more thing you’ll have to think on,” Merlin stated once Harry was settled back in his hospital room once more.

He could have been moved to his room at the mansion, but he hadn’t been officially cleared. His bandages were still around his head, and while all the surgeries were finished, they wanted to wait for it all to finish healing before they released him to his room in Kingsmen HQ, codenamed Camelot.

“What’s that?” Harry asked tiredly.

“What to do with the Sorceresses? Do we fold them into the table, do we make the common knowledge, or do they remain a secret?” Merlin questioned and Harry sighed softly.

“Tell Evelyn I’ll see her the day after tomorrow, if she’s available. We’ll discuss it together,” Harry stated and Merlin nodded, tapping away on something, letting out a startled exhale when Harry, carefully tugged him onto his bed.

“Later. There’s room enough here for two,” Harry stated.

“No, there isn’t. That’s a lie,” Merlin retorted.

Harry smiled and gently reached up with a shaking hand to hook his fingers gently on Merlin’s collar. He pulled slightly as and Merlin grumbled, complaining about Harry destroying the collars of all his jumpers, even as he followed the gentle tugs. Harry smiled and pressed a soft kiss to Merlin’s lips. “Malcolm, please,” Harry asked softly, knowing that Malcolm would feel every word against his lips.

Malcolm sighed, warm and pressed a chaste kiss to Harry’s lips. “Oh, very well. One night cannot do too much harm,” he muttered and carefully settled on the hospital bed with Harry.

Harry smiled and Malcolm ignored it in favor of hiding his face in the crook of Harry’s neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes; I am nebulous about how much time has passed because the movie was the same.
> 
> Like, we know _at least_ six months pass from when they get their puppies, because the puppies are basically all grown-up by the end of it. Most likely more? I honestly don't know how quick the 'rush production' on the SIM cards was, but not nearly as much time is like that.
> 
> Emerson is still injured, after all. I would mention if he had both hands, so it can't be more than three months and it is no less than two weeks, since Harry is more or less mobile.
> 
> So, there we go.
> 
> Apologies on that.
> 
> SECOND....
> 
> 29 of my fics, to my knowledge, got hit by the e-books tree thing. I am not going to put my fics onto 'registered users only', but if I get hit again, I might have no choice.
> 
> My apologies to all non-registered readers.


	10. Truths or Lies

Eggsy sat with Mordred as they considered identities. “So, I have to put on an accent?” Eggsy asked.

“Quite. You two are the children of two very wealthy, if well-hidden, families. Your parents never let you two be spoiled any more than the average only child. You just have to choose whose mother married whose father. I was tempted to have your fathers marry, but decided that would draw too much attention. Make you too memorable. Mordred, you’re 16, please act it. Gawain, you’re your age, 24 was it? Either way, that’s why you two are travelling together,” Morgana stated and Mordred nodded while Eggsy looked through the file.

“Can I claim the mom?” Mordred asked as she looked over at Eggsy.

“Yeah. My dad, your mum,” Eggsy stated.

“Right, let’s go over our history,” Mordred stated as she stood up, grabbing at Eggsy.

“We can do it while we walk my dogs,” she added and Eggsy followed her easily, taking Raven, Eliza, and Saoirse as they went.

* * *

“Our files say our parents have been married for four years,” Eggsy stated as they made their way to the farthest point of the property.

“Yeah. Mostly we just fill it out and make us human, more or less,” Mordred answered.

“All right, one suite, two rooms…we get along?” Eggsy stated and Mordred looked over at him before she nodded.

“That would make sense. Especially since your persona is the one paying for it all,” Mordred answered and Eggsy was about to respond when they came upon a campsite.

“Who’s here?” he asked.

“Me,” Mordred answered as she shooed the dogs into the tent before inclining her head toward the tent flap.

Eggsy went in and she followed after him, flopping onto the inflatable mattress. “So, we get along,” she stated and Eggsy shook himself all over, the pair soon weaving a story they would know better than their own pasts by the time their flight was scheduled to take off.

* * *

“Mordred?” Eggsy questioned.

“Mm-hmm?” Mordred responded, the pair walking back to the mansion, Mordred’s camping supplies strapped to her back, a flashlight lighting their way.

“Why does everyone call you that, even when off duty?” Eggsy asked.

“Because,” Mordred answered, voice distant.

Eggsy decided he could wait for the answer. “All right then. So, next time, I can bring JB? You think he and your dogs will get along?” Eggsy questioned.

“Most likely. I’ll keep Fen at heel, and an eye on the hunter dogs, but they should all be fine,” Mordred responded.

“Good. I miss havin’ him with me all the time,” Eggsy stated as they walked onto the open field between the woods and the mansion.

* * *

Brannon frowned as he continued to review his mission specs when he heard someone knock. “Come in,” he called as he looked up, surprised to see the girl Lanc…James, had used to hang out with on the gun range.

On occasion.

Brannon suspected that she was one of the gun techs and it was no wonder the trigger-happy moron had befriended her. “Percival?” she questioned and he nodded, waving her in as he did so.

The girl walked in quickly at that, leaving the door partially open.

She was dressed more for outside work than the polished halls of Kingsmen HQ (codenamed Camelot) and she paused when she got to the other side of his desk. He was surprised when she, carefully, settled a thick, almost splitting at the seams, envelope on his desk. “I’m sorry for your loss. I would have gotten this to you earlier, but I only recently connected…I’m sorry,” she stated and she was gone.

Brannon shifted to follow her when he recognized the handwriting on the envelope.

He settled back in the chair and, with slightly trembling fingers, picked up the envelope.

 _Percy_ is written across it in slanted, sharp (yet blocky) writing and he opens it quickly, yanking out the papers in there. Some pictures slip out across his desk, but he’s too busy opening up the top letter, dropping the other pages so he can try and drink in the words.

_Brannon,_

_If you’re reading this I am either dead or Poppet, that’s what I call the girl I met in the gun range, died. She’s definitely not a gun tech, no matter what she says. I suspect she’s part of our extraction team set-up and it is entirely likely she’ll die getting one of us out._

_She’s also the owner of the three-legged ghost dog, imagine that._

_Anyway, it is far more likely I am dead._

_I am sorry about that Bran. I know we always talked like we knew it would happen, but I am sorry. I know I wasn’t careful when I died, because I am not. Not even nearly getting blown up on the mission where I made Lancelot made me careful._

_I am a cocky bastard and I should never work alone, but that’s what we Knights do, isn’t it?_

_Work alone._

_I am sorry. I am sorry I am leaving you, leaving Pebble._

_I left some things for her, in my unit. You know the one. I left you my gun collection._

_Give my favorite one to Poppet, will you? She won’t accept it from me, but she’ll take it from you._

_Unless I took my favorite on my final mission. Than give her my second-favorite._

_Again, you know the one._

_I guess you could say this a will, of sorts. I almost recorded something instead, but I knew I would bollocks that up, so I didn’t. I figure you would prefer my writing it out anyway, just to show that I was taking something serious for once in my life._

_Well, besides us and us raising Pebble and don’t even try to deny we didn’t raise her._

_Don’t even. You always act like your sister and her husband did, but really, they didn’t. We did. Well, mostly you, but we did it together more or less._

_Okay, it was mostly you, but I very much devoted myself to our Pebble, so don’t let her even think for a second I didn’t love her or wish it could be different._

_I love you._

_I am sure my final thoughts won’t be that, unless I am given a chance to realize this is the end, but I am sure my final thoughts will be about you, and Pebble. About the way we cuddled on rainy afternoons._

_I miss those cuddles._

_I also miss our dogs. Get another dog, Bran, please? Get one to work with the one Pebble will have gotten in the recruitment process for a new Lancelot, because I was a cocky bastard and got myself killed._

_Get a dog that goes insane and leaps around and fills our quiet house with life, because it was so quiet, stone quiet, when I walked in and I don’t want you to go back to it. You had made a home a mausoleum and I can’t, in good conscience, allow you to go back to that._

_I can’t, Bran. Not when it will be my fault._

_Call it selfish, call it me being an utterly cocky prat, but please._

_For me._

_Get another dog, rescue some poor mutt from the shelter and bring them into your home. Give yourself a reason beyond Pebble to keep coming back. Because, if Pebble is the Pebble I know, she’s going to make a damn fine Lancelot._

_Unless, somehow, one of the others died before me._

_In which case, I am in shock and awe of the fact I lived that bloody long. I mean, honestly, were we expecting that?_

_I certainly wasn’t._

_I know you hoped for it, you incorrigible optimistic, and don’t deny it! You are an optimistic, even if you try to hide it under that stoic exterior, though you have **nothing** on Bedivere._

_I love you Brannon, and I am so sorry._

_I miss you._

_Tell Pebble I love her too._

_Oh!_

_And, if you would, leave rosemary and bellflowers on Lee’s grave for me? The Kingsmen one, not the one his family got._

**_Oh_ ** _, and will you check on the Unwins for me?_

_Always meant to and never did. ~~5 years too late.~~ ~~6 years too late.~~ 8 years too late._

_But, as you say, better late than never right?_

_I love you Bran._

_I love you so much._

_With all my soul,_

_James (aka Lancelot)_

Brannon stared at the letter, tears streaming down his face, and then he looks at the rest.

It is pictures, of him and James, or just James. There is one of James and Roxanne, the one time they had snuck the girl onto Kingsmen grounds.

It takes him a while to realize he doesn’t know when these were taken. They’re just…moments. Ones that someone either took or had looked through the cameras at for. Collected and put them together and Percival notices a second letter.

He pulls it out, only to find that it is written in an unfamiliar hand, and it is simple.

At the top is a number, with the name _Abigail Cavan_ written next to it. He doesn’t know it, and is surprised to find pictures printed onto the page of German Shepherds.

Under those pictures is a simple; _She’s waiting for your call. James already started the ball rolling. She’s on the Kingsmen Accepted Breeders list as well._

No name, no nothing, but Brannon stares at the pictures, at the letter, and the fact the pictures practically cover his desk, and sighs.

For James, he’ll call Abigail Cavan.

But not until after his mission on the Valentine SIM cards is completed.

* * *

Merlin woke briefly when he heard the door opening, and he looked up, Harry mumbling, and Merlin relaxed when he saw it was Mordred, peeking in on them. “Staying here tonight Merlin?” Mordred asked softly.

“Aye. You want to join us?” he responded quietly, wondering what had prompted the girl to come back to the mansion early.

“No. Just wanted to check,” she stated and hesitated before she slipped into the room and closed the door behind her.

He saw her lift one of the jammers he had invented and flick it on before she smiled at Merlin. “Night Da,” she stated and Merlin smiled at her.

“Night Mordred,” he answered and then she was gone, a shadow slipping through the darkness, the jamming device already turned off.

Merlin sighed and settled back down, shifting so his ear was over Harry’s heartbeat, allowing it to lull him back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, readers, curious; is there anything you think I should tag beyond 'copious amounts of dogs'?
> 
> (I'm joking about tag.)


	11. Complications

“How long?” Merlin asked as he typed away, readying the systems for the three missions.

Mordred, sitting on the ground behind him, rubbed Fen, the dog in her lap, his head resting on the crook of her arm, tail wagging happily across the floor.

“Three weeks. From…tomorrow I guess. I’m not sure. I leave tonight, and then three weeks from that, I guess. It is a bit up in the air,” Mordred answered softly.

“Well, we got an uninterrupted month. And you didn’t do any extra-curricular assassinations. I’m proud of you,” Merlin answered and Mordred beamed, scratching Fen’s side which had him stretching pleasantly.

“Where is the rest of your pack?” Merlin asked as he continued to update the systems.

“Saoirse is with Harriet, Ruby with the trackers, Raven and Gwen with Morgana, and Eliza is visiting Harry,” Mordred recited as she glanced over the dossiers that were on the screens.

One was on Paul Masters and she kept her nerves from showing. “I’m surprised,” Merlin stated.

“Well, I’m going to be leaving tonight and while I wish I could have spent it with them, I can’t give them all the exercise they need. Also, I wanted to spend time with you,” Mordred responded softly.

Merlin turned to smile at her at that and Mordred smiled back, keeping her eyes on him and not even glancing over at the Paul Masters file.

After a few more minutes, Morgana called her over the glasses and she got up, Fen getting up with a quiet command. She paused and then crossed to Merlin, hugging him quickly before she walked out, rubbing her hands on her trouser legs, Fen at heel.

* * *

“We have a small problem,” Mordred stated as she walked into Eggsy’s room at the mansion, Eggsy looking up from the packing he was doing.

“What?” he questioned, and Mordred paused, looking around for Harry before she looked back at Eggsy.

“You sound like Harry,” she stated and Eggsy flushed.

“I’m good at mimicry,” Eggsy mumbled in his normal accent.

“Nice. Easier that way. We’ll have you copy Merlin next,” Mordred answered and walked over to his bed, sitting on it as Fen settled at her feet.

“Yeah, all right, that the problem?” Eggsy asked.

“Oh, no. Knights are going to be on our mission,” Mordred answered.

“Wot?” Eggsy squawked and Mordred giggled.

“Yeah. We’ll have to keep an eye on them. I can’t find out who is assigned to it, so we’ll have to do a bit of a hang back,” Mordred answered.

“That’s a bit of a hiccup,” Eggsy stated.

“Yeah. The moment we step into the Kingsman cab, we’ll have to be in character,” she answered and Eggsy frowned at her.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“Well, I don’t know which agents, I don’t know who to avoid. It gets messy if we meet and have opposing missions,” Mordred answered and Eggsy frowned.

“Messy in that we often fail our mission, not that we have to kill them. I need the order to do _that_ ,” Mordred stated and Eggsy huffed out a soft laugh as he zipped up his suitcase.

“So, how does this work?” Eggsy asked.

“We have a base where we are going and the limo driver works for us and he’s going to have our extra luggage that was sent ahead of us, according to computers. It wasn’t, but that’s the story. It was made up there, and it has laptops, weapons, and some hiking gear,” Mordred responded with a tiny shrug.

“So, the Sorceresses can’t piggy back off another branch?” Eggsy questioned.

“No. Not a Kingsmen branch anyway,” Mordred answered with a grin and Eggsy chuckled as he pulled the bag off the bed.

“All right then,” he answered.

* * *

The resort was on an island off the East Coast of the United States. They had landed outside Augusta, Maine, and then driven the rest of the way up in the limo, reviewing everything, chatting with Morgana, and trying to figure out which Knights might show up here.

“I don’t think it will be Percival or the new Lancelot,” Morgana stated.

“No. This is a resort for people with things to hide, not to flaunt. And Percival would shoot anyone who suggested anything untoward between himself and the new Lancelot,” Mordred answered as she put together the sniper rifle that was among their hiking gear.

“Yeah?” he asked and Mordred nodded as she began to take the sniper rifle back apart.

* * *

They check in, with one last thing slipped into their cover.

They’re using “his” dad’s import-export business as a cover for smuggling. He started in earnest when she was fourteen, with her acting as a runner, and, between the two of them, they’ve been running various things of various legalities through his father’s business.

She’s new, more nervous, he’s an old hat at it, having long gotten used to abusing his position as the boss’s son to get what he wants.

Now with his own branch, he still uses other branches to move things, only occasionally sticking things amongst his own shipping points.

It is flawless and easily woven in without a hitch.

They smile and grin and Mordred’s Scottish accent is unfaltering as Eggsy’s accent borrowed from Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to post this. All right?


End file.
